“EBay Inc. became the latest Web site to say it will stop using Microsoft Corp.’s Passport user authentication system, as Microsoft continues to scale back the service,” The Associated Press reports. “Microsoft once had big plans for Passport, which was designed to let Internet users have a single “username” and password that could be used on the Web sites of many different companies. It originally also stored credit card numbers in an attempt to make shopping at several sites more convenient, but Microsoft phased that out last year.”
“Passport will remain the login technology used on Microsoft’s own sites, including the free e-mail service Hotmail and the Encarta encyclopedia, but the company will no longer pursue its incorporation on a broad collection of outside sites,” AP reports. “This fall, online job posting service Monster Worldwide Inc. stopped using Passport. EBay, which is based in San Jose, Calif., this week announced it would drop it in late January.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Awww, geez, that’s too bad, huh? 
Further signs the old toothy dog is loosing his bark.
Apple is refreshed, ambitious and ready to rule the world.
Hehe…my MDN Magic Word is “standard”. I guess that’s what the Passport login no longer is?
Did anyone actually try to use the Passport option on eBay? In my several minuts ot total frustration I became enraged and after that I wasn’t able to login normally from that point on. Damn assimilatory microShaft coding.
I guess that hatchet at Microsoft is going full time now. Whack!�don’t need that anymore�Whack!�don’t need that either.
WHACK! Don’t need this PC anymore
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microsucks is goin DOWN!
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The questions MS asked me while applying for my Passport – just so I could have an MS Messenger password – caused me to stop the process – twice. I still don’t have a Messenger password. As long as they keep trying to stick their nose up my …err…whatever, I won’t get one, either. I am amazed that other actually must have answered these questions. ‘Course, most of those folks use PCs, so clear thinking is not their strong suit.
Mike
I’ve waiting for the demise of this system for some time. Finally. That insecure hack of a system produced by Microsoft is the reason a business here got over $90,000 wired to some country in Europe and there is nothing they can do about it. Shameful, yet folks continue to pledge (blind) allegiance to Microsoft without at least considering alternatives.
Sell it to the INS. Our government loves buying over bloated crap.
You’ll loooove this
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http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,119016,00.asp
Ironically, ebay’s servers run on Windows Server 2003
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http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.ebay.com
Remember to changer your passwords often, kiddies
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Re Fred:
One more reason NOT to use WMA
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Does that mean that the Liberty Alliance is the only player in that space now? Whay is happening with the Liberty Alliance project by the way?
http://www.projectliberty.org/
Ace; it’s Micros**t.
Excellent news!
Maybe Apple should approach them with a system that actually works and that i not suseptable to security flaws!
Microsoft… tick, tick, tick… you are the weakest link – GOODBYE!
microshaft…..really sums up what they do. they give their customers the SHAFT…..so neil I will be forced to back Ace in his name calling selection.
The Emperor of Redmond has no clothes! OMG, that’s an ugly sight!
i find it interesting that this article has been on the CNET site for quite awhile now with no discussions started. The MS’ers are in shock.