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Addition of MicroID to /user/ page

 
  • Addition of MicroID to /user/ page

    MicroID is a simple standard designed to allow third parties to verify small pieces of identity across the network. I post this here because the pages that live at http://www.last.fm/user/USERNAME/ are perfect for this type of simple rollout.

    A last.fm-generated hash of a user's verified email address and last.fm profile URL would generate a key that is placed into the <head></head> of their profile page like this:

    <meta name="microid" content="a9993e364706816aba3e25717850c26c9cd0d89d" />

    We are trying to do this at claimID and have noticed that many of the users are claiming their own websites and blogs, as well as their flickr, del.icio.us, linkedin, and last.fm accounts. However, they can only verify they are the same person for their own websites and blogs, since only there do they have access to edit the <head> information.

    Since users cannot edit the <head> here at last.fm, please consider calculating this hash and displaying it on the user profile pages. Details about the standard hash function can be found on the MicroID site.

    Terrell
    http://claimID.com/terrell

    Some further reading and argument can be found here:
    - http://weblog.terrellrussell.com/2006/07/microid-army-activate/
    - http://chimprawk.blogspot.com/2006/06/creating-social-web-of-trust-with.html
    - http://blog.claimid.com/2006/07/microid-and-magnolia-working-together/

    • Russ said...
    • Subscriber
    • 14 Aug 2006, 23:33
    I've added this to our development branch - it'll be live in a month.

    Russ

  • Awesome. Thanks!

    Do let me know if there's anything I can do to help.

    Terrell

  • And it's live.

    Check the source of your own /user/ page. You'll have to have an email address on file with last.fm for it to appear in your <head>.

    • Wevah said...
    • Subscriber
    • 5 Nov 2006, 02:14
    Hrm; my MicroID doesn't match. Is there anything I should do to fix that?

    • Wevah said...
    • Subscriber
    • 5 Nov 2006, 02:15
    Oh, I bet it's because I use different e-mail addresses for different things.

    Crumbs.

    Edit: Yep, that's most of it, though I also noticed another thing: Last.fm's hash assumes lowercase usernames, which mine obviously isn't.

    • RiqGees said...
    • User
    • 6 Nov 2006, 06:22
    I still can't figure out what all this microID fuss is.

    Can anyone explain in plain english what it's for?

    • Wevah said...
    • Subscriber
    • 7 Nov 2006, 01:25
    AFAIK, it's a way to prove to automated services that you "own" a page (for things like ClaimID and the like).

    • cp_ffm said...
    • Subscriber
    • 21 Nov 2006, 21:26
    Hm,it doesn't seem to work with Last.FM, though it works with del.icio.us. I use the same email address.
    Anyone any idea?

  • works great for me!

    I added my last.fm profile to my claimID and later I noticed it was verified without me doing anything. So I just googled "last.fm verified on claimid" and found my way to this thread.

    You gotta love internet sometimes! And nice developers too! :)

    • Sheppy said...
    • User
    • 6 May 2007, 16:14
    Indeed you have to use a URL with a lower case version of your user name, so for me for example the URL to use would be http://www.last.fm/user/sheppy/ instead of http://www.last.fm/user/Sheppy/.

    However there's a privacy issue with this. If someone has your email address and wants to find out if an account they see on last.fm belongs to you they can easily verify this through the MicroID. I asked mustaqila and he said he'd file a bug ticket for me to add a user setting to turn this stuff off. :)

  • This is awesome!

    As just pointed out, you must put a trailing slash after your profile address or it won't work.

    • steevc said...
    • Subscriber
    • 2 Sep 2008, 08:12

    MicroID dropped

    I gather from this article that last.fm has dropped MicroID, but didn't see any announcement. There are some issues with it, but it still useful. How about making it optional as some other sites do?

  • right, how about opt-in functinality in the user preferences?

    do androids dream of electric sheep?
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