Mozilla has pushed out the second beta version of its Persona authentication system . The move is the latest step in the company’s campaign to rid the Web of passwords and make it easier for consumers to log on to sites regardless of the browser they’re using.
The goal of Persona is that it will ultimately act as an alternative way for users to sign up for websites without having to enter new passwords or come up with new login credentials. The movement will also do away with the need for webmasters to securely store their users’ passwords.
The most noticeable change with Beta 2 is that Mozilla has brought on Yahoo as a supporting website. This means through what it’s calling “Identity Bridging,” users can log into Persona-supported websites with their yahoo.com e-mail address.
While Yahoo has already been bridged, the functionality is in place for all domains. Now Mozilla is in the process of trying to convince webmasters to enable users to log into Persona sites via their own personal domains with the help of their Persona Identity Provider tool.
The update also includes the requisite performance improvements and other new features, according to an entry on Mozilla’s Identity Tumblr blog by the company’s Director of Identity, Ben Adida, earlier today.
Some of those features include new 200 percent load times and the system’s infusion into the service’s forthcoming FirefoxOS, due to start surfacing in devices this summer.
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The group’s first Persona build came in September when it announced a new “cryptographic identity assertion” technology that lasts only a few minutes and is only valid for one site log-in credential. Persona insists the “simple, one-time process” only takes two clicks and benefits users and developers alike.
Going forward, the sans password route will likely be new territory for many internet users. The technology differs from similar services like Facebook Connect and OpenID as Persona doesn’t rely on a centralized security infrastructure.
