Various OpenID Formats

Question

Stackoverflow

I am experimenting with implementing OpenID on my existing site. I reviewed a Plaxo article on this, and I am - this is something, something is confused.

I am using this OpenID PHP library . I have some code and I get a unique OpenID.

From myopenid.com I get an identifier that looks like https://myusername.myopenid.com/

But from Yahoo and Google I get an identifier that is much more mysterious, for example. https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id?id=AItOawlbp1cxujdJWDnpx72xVROOw-5V_WzIDZA

Are Google and Yahoo "gibberish" unique to each user login, i.e. Is this the value that I use to bind to an existing user in my web application?

Answer 1

openid_identifier is a URL. It may be readable or may be cryptic; it must decide the OP. And yes, the canonicalized URL is what you use as the key.