Google planning on an integrated 1Password type of service?

Google employee and XML pioneer Tim Bray has been known for delivering awesome tweets from his personal Twitter account regarding issues happening at the company. Today, Bray took to his popular ‘Ongoing’ blog to share what he worked on at Google for the past three months (since he left Android developer relations for OAUTH group). In a blog post, titled “Less Pain, More Money”, Bray appears to hint that Google is working on a solution for storing passwords and simplifying logins:

Google really wants you to type things like “good mountain bike” or “Knoxville pediatrician” into the search box…. More often than you’d think, people don’t; they click in the address bar and type in the URL of a big bookstore or Somebody’sList, as a first step on their search. When we ask why, surprisingly they often say ”Oh, if I found something good on a random site out there I’d have to log in, and either remember my stupid password or fight through the stupid sign-up page.” The numbers are probably secret, but they’re very significant.

[tweet https://twitter.com/timbray/status/247567089974513665]

While Bray does not go into detail about a specific feature that he or Google is working on, he noted his job currently centers on reducing the frustration associated with logging in to various websites. We have a feeling Google is working on a new feature that will make storing passwords and logging into websites much easier.

It is not hard to imagine doing a Google search to a page, where you would normally need to login to, and then find yourself already logged in with account credentials stored in your Google account.

Related articles

• Google discloses paid bloggers to judge in Oracle case, lists Stanford prof. Mark Lemley as ‘outside counsel’ (9to5google.com)
• Google’s Matt Cutts: ‘Turn on two-factor authentication’ (9to5google.com)
• Google rolling out new multiple account login page for Gmail (9to5google.com)

In general, we’d like everyone to spend lots of time online. Less logging in improves the experience, so there you go; not rocket science.

Bray announced on his blog in June that he was leaving the Android team and joining Google’s Identity group to work on OAuth and OpenID-related projects. At the time, he noted, “Usernames and passwords generally suck and obviously don’t scale to the Internet, so we need to do away with ’em soonest.” He also said OAuth2 is “is way too hard for developers” and there needs to be better tools and services.

Related articles

• Google discloses paid bloggers to judge in Oracle case, lists Stanford prof. Mark Lemley as ‘outside counsel’ (9to5google.com)
• Google’s Matt Cutts: ‘Turn on two-factor authentication’ (9to5google.com)
• Google rolling out new multiple account login page for Gmail (9to5google.com)