Do many of you have one? You know the login you use for Hotmail/Live Mail and Xbox.com (I guess spaces aswell but who actually uses that (well a couple of million apparently but do you know any of them, huh?)).

Microsoft will be releasing software (also a white paper on the subject, and probably worth reading the Windows CardSpace page too - it's an interesting read) that allows other apps to integrate with Live ID and I want to integrate this with my site. Basically I want to use Live ID to log me into my admin area instead of the custom login that I've built. But I also want to be able to create hidden posts (everybody loves to be a bitch, right? right?) and I want to use Live ID with this (you'd have to be logged in so if you had just checked your mail you would logged in here).

The biggest concern I have about this is security - I have no idea how this software/SDK kit will work. I'm hoping that at no point will this site be taking anybody's details (you'd have to be mad to type them in to my site - I'm totally safe but really it just ain't gonna happen). I imagine there would be a redirection to a Live login and then back to here and then the MS software would check for an encrypted cookie or something. It will be secure - they aren't idiots (and look at all the recent developments from MS - all very secure now). I just don't know how it will work yet.

It makes sense for me to use Live ID because I use Live Mail for my online mail, developer (things like the search on this site), Windows Vista RC and Xbox Live accounts.

But what about anybody visiting the site? Lots of people (around 300 million) have Live IDs (or passports as they were known as before) and I think it would work out pretty well. I also know that many people don't have them - so would it be okay to say that those that don't wouldn't be able to see some content?

You see, I love the idea of having just one login that I use across the web - I'm so, so tired of having usernames for everything I want to use - I don't even know what half my logins/passwords are anymore! I'm not saying Live ID is perfector the way forward but I want some kind of global ID and this new SDK could help with that.

Are there alternatives that will be as secure? Are there other global IDs out there that can be integrated into a site safely?