Use Blogger as your OpenID address

I was reading about Google supporting OpenID for commenting on blogs and remembered about OpenID delegation. It got me thinking. May be we can get ahead of the curve with Google support of OpenID. So a quick Google and a debt of thanks to Phil Windley on his Technometria blog and I had what I needed to start using this blog as my OpenID. If you want to be able to use your blog as your OpenID then follow these steps below.

The steps documented here are for Blogger but you can follow this procedure with any blog platform. All you need to be able to do is to be able to insert a couple of lines of HTML in to your blog. This procedure assumes you already have an OpenID. I have been using my AOL Instant Messenger account as my OpenID. If you have an AIM account then you are one of 62 million screennames with an OpenID. 

Okay, here we go:

1. Login to Blogger and access your blog dashboard.
2. If you have more than one blog pick the one you want and select the Layout option.



3. In layout mode choose the Edit HTML option.
4. Look near the top of your template
5. For an AOL AIM OpenID use the following snippet of code, just be careful not to embed this in one of the many comment sections of the Template:

/*
Add OpenID Support to Blogger using AIM
*/
<link rel="openid.server" href="https://api.screenname.aol.com/auth/openidServer" >
<link rel="openid.delegate" href="http://openid.aol.com/YourAIMScreenNameGoesHere" >
/*
End of Add OpenID Support to Blogger using AIM
*/

6. Save your template.

Yes, Put your own screenname where it says YourAIMScreenNameGoesHere

Go to a site that accepts OpenID. 

Use your blog address as your OpenID. You should be taken to the AIM Screenname sign in.

That's all there is to it. Your blog is now your userid and password! One less URL to remember.