What is an Open ID and how can I use it?

What are open ID's and how do they work ? I noticed to login into this website i required an open id. My question is what are they ? and how can i integrade an open ID login.

I want to make the user login using their open id and create a nickname of some sort and then use that nickname and their open id to login if thats even possible or do what this website does.

Any code examples and informat开发者_StackOverflowion would be helpful,

Thank you!

You can get all the information you need at OpenID's official website.

How to get started using it on your own site is outlined here.

Also, depending on your language, there may already be a library to get you up and running quickly!

A good starting point for getting to know OpenID is

• http://www.openid.net and
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenID

regarding the implementation: You need to implement an openid consumer. There are some php libraries available that can ease this for you.

Here's a site called "OpenID explained" that answers this question well.