Advertisement
Promo

Online business Toolkit

Passport hits industry barriers

David Becker CNET News

Published: 23 Mar 2004 12:45 GMT

  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendly
  • Post Comment

Remember when Microsoft was going to be your trusted, omnipresent guide through the world of online commerce?

That was the plan a few years ago, when the software giant began pitching its Passport online authentication service as a cure-all for what was ailing online shopping. The company expected to sell Passport services to thousands of online vendors, making your Microsoft-stored password and the extensive personal and financial information behind it all you needed to do business on the Internet.

The reality has turned out to be considerably less expansive. Passport use is limited to Microsoft-owned sites and a handful of close partners, thanks to a combination of customer apathy, high-profile Microsoft glitches and credible competition from the industry-backed Liberty Alliance.

Analysts now say Passport is likely to become little more than part of Microsoft's Internet infrastructure over the next year, with broader plans to manage identity information now deferred until Longhorn, the next version of the Windows operating system.

"There doesn't seem to be a huge role for Passport -- certainly not the role that was sketched out for it two or three years ago," said Matt Rosoff, an analyst for research firm Directions on Microsoft. "I expect at some point, Microsoft is going to say Passport is for Microsoft sites and close partners and leave it at that."

"The market largely rejected a proprietary, tied-to-Microsoft approach," Gartner analyst John Pescatore said. "We've actually seen the Liberty Alliance keep moving forward and get some traction in a variety of places, where Passport has pretty much remained a Microsoft, under-the-covers thing."

Microsoft representatives declined repeated requests to comment for this story. "There's nothing new to talk about," one representative said, while insisting that Microsoft remains committed to Passport.

Aside from dealing with occasional outages, Microsoft executives have not spoken about Passport for months.

The software maker acquired the technology for Passport when it bought Firefly Network in April 1998. It relaunched the service a year later as part of a broad e-commerce strategy.

Next

Previous

1 2 3


  • Email
  • Trackback
  • Clip Link
  • Print friendlyPrint with EPSON

Did you find this article useful?
228 out of 364 people found this useful


Full Talkback thread

0 comments

Company/Topic Alerts

Create a new alert from the list below:




Sentry Posts Blog

McKinnon lawyers seek judicial review

Lawyers seeking a judicial review for Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon lodged fresh evidence of his psychiatric state at the High Court on Thursday. Karen Todner, McKinnon's solicitor,... More

1 comment

Beware of keeping your head in the clo...

Information security professionals can look forward to a deepening appreciation for their skills as security continues to be recognised as an essential element for doing business in... More

1 comment

Civil liberties groups attack file-sha...

Civil liberties and digital rights organisations have strongly criticised Lord Mandelson's Digital Economy Bill. Liberty said in a position paper on Tuesday that the bill, part of... More

Post a comment

Video icon

Video

Google Chrome

Roundup: Full coverage of Google Chrome

The search giant has launched a beta of its own open-source browser, sending a clear challenge to Microsoft in the way it lets users work with applications More

Blog: Google Chrome has Microsoft's code inside, says MS manager

And furthermore, he says, that's a good thing... More

Blog: Google Chrome — nine things we've found since launch

Google must be very happy with the coverage Chrome has gathered. But it's not all good news... More


Skip Sub Navigation Links to CNET Brand Links

Help

Become part of the ZDNet community.

Newsletters