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Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

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Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#2
Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#3
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

I'm not too sure, for my purposes. I was trying to think of some ways we could use this, but I'm just not seeing it. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, though.

Can anyone provide some neat examples for cases in the context of web applications? Their mobile app examples didn't really speak to me.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#4
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

If I was selling something I would want to use Login with Amazon. This press release doesn't specify, but potentially they could add a one-click purchase API, which would be very nice.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#5
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

If I was selling something I would want to use Login with Amazon. This press release doesn't specify, but potentially they could add a one-click purchase API, which would be very nice.

This is the sort of thing I was assuming as well, if it let you tie in to doing purchases via amazon's payment API (though I'd still expect another request for password during purchase, but it would pre-assume account) could be useful, if leveraged correctly.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#6
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

There's not a social network, but there's a "money" network attached to your Amazon account (i.e. your credit card) From the article:

>> "over 200 million active Amazon customers"

That's 200 million verified credit cards of people who are comfortable with ecommerce. There's arguably some value in that.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#7
I was shocked to discover this is the canonical URL & domain for the Amazon press releases. After I clicked the link and saw the URL I initially thought this was some bizarre phishing scheme.

That being said, I think this is a great idea. I don't love the Facebook OAuth flow and the amount of access most apps ask for. I have trouble taking Twitter seriously as an OAuth provider [bias much?]. I think there are many US-focused companies who will be excited to have Google & Amazon as the two default OAuth authentication providers. If nothing else, it's much more adult than Twitter/Facebook. Oh, and Amazon has your credit card info and a great platform for SaaS billing :)

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#8
post #3
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

I'm not too sure, for my purposes. I was trying to think of some ways we could use this, but I'm just not seeing it. Perhaps I'm misunderstanding, though. Can anyone provide some neat examples for cases in the context of web applications? Their mobile app examples didn't really speak to me.

Login with Amazon. Now the person has one-click purchasing power. Or most likely, a credit card on file, which is more valuable then a Facebook profile without any CC on file, especially in the context of a web application.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#9
I'll echo what some of the other commenters are saying, namely that for anything e-commerce related (and I'd argue SaaS-type software) this method of login makes most sense. If you were going to sign up for a free trial of something or create an account at a store, would you want to login with Facebook or Twitter? Or Amazon, whom you likely already trust with your money. The latter I'd say.

On the other hand, if I have a social or news/content site, FB and Twitter login makes the most sense. That way I have access to their social graph as well as an indentity.

Anyway, this is pretty cool. I think I'll integrate Login with Amazon with my startup (mariposta.com) pretty soon, as it very well could lessen signup friction. We'll see.

Re: Amazon Announces Login with Amazon

#10
post #2

Alright, but the question is "why would someone want to log in with Amazon"? There's no social network attached to your Amazon account. It seems like it would be an odd choice of identity provider, unless you are a store and already using Amazon's fulfillment services.

For some reason it strikes me as a pretty good idea. Upon further reflection, I think it has something to do with:

- Trust -- people increasingly distrust sites like Facebook or Google (privacy concerns), but Amazon still has pretty much entirely "positive" feelings for consumers. And if they can run AWS as well as they can, then you assume you can trust them with your password too

- Micropayments -- your credit card is already linked to your Amazon account, presumably, so it suddenly enables you to pay for content, etc. on a wide range of sites where you might not otherwise, due to friction and trust issues

It's funny... for some undefinable "fuzzy" reason, I feel much more willing to log into a site using Amazon credentials, than I would with Google, Facebook or even Apple.

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