Google announces Oauth 2.0 support in APIs

SOFTWARE DEVELOPER Google has announced that it will be supporting the Oauth 2.0 authentication protocol in its Google applications' programmable interfaces (APIs).

Google supported the original Oauth authentication protocol back in 2008 and now it is has announced "experimental support" for Oauth 2.0.

The Oauth 2.0 protocol has yet to be finalised, though Google claims it wants to provide an easier way for developers to obtain authorisation using its APIs, saying, "you should be able to do more with less code".

The Oauth protocol is an open authentication protocol that has been implemented by many popular websites and APIs including Facebook's Graph API. The idea behind Oauth is to allow users to share data between websites without having to hand over their details to each one separately.

Although it is good to see Google pushing an open authentication standard such as Oauth, users should be wary that Google is trying to make users more dependent on their Google accounts.

It's a similar strategy to that deployed by Facebook, and while it might be convenient for users to have all their credentials in one place, it also makes the massive Internet companies such as Google and Facebook very powerful.

Aside from implementing Oauth 2.0, Google has also cleaned up its consent page, making it easier for users to manage access to various parts of their accounts.

We expect Google to update its Oauth 2.0 implementation as the standard nears finalisation. µ