Microsoft opens up Windows Live ID

The public release adds a number of features that were missing from the alpha version, such as sample code in ASP.NET, Ruby, Java, Perl, Python, and PHP, as well as improved documentation. The service is available free of charge to all web developers, but there is a Terms of Use agreement that places limits on how the service may be used, for the most part to try and dissuade people from using it for the purposes of spamming.

At first glance, Windows Live ID isn't doing much that is different from other online identity systems, such as the open-source OpenID or alternative systems used by Web companies like Google and Yahoo. However, Microsoft does have a few extra goodies to offer developers. Windows Live ID is not intended to replace the CardSpace identity manager that comes with Windows Vista, but rather to work with it. Tools such as CardSpace (as well as Novell and IBM's open-source Higgins project) manage identities for the user on the client side, while Windows Live ID handles things on the server side. The idea of opening up the API is to allow developers to tie the two together in a more seamless—and hopefully more secure—environment..