On Monday Meebo announced something called XAuth (not to be confused with the X Windows authorization program). What is it? It’s a small JavaScript library intended to be used by website developers to tailor a web page to a specific user, with the end goal of creating a better user experience.
One of the stronger use cases in my mind is:
- You’re logged into Facebook, but you never use Twitter
- You read a news article on newsobserver.com
- The News & Observer website could intelligently decide to show you a “share this on Facebook” button (because you use Facebook), and could decide not to show you a “Tweet This” button (because you don’t use Twitter)
The specification allows more flexibility than that. Website operators decide what information to share, and users are able to opt-out entirely.
More information:
- Meebo XAuth demo page (click “Visit Demo Page” for Google and log in–notice how meebo.com now knows that you have a Google account)
- Official XAuth website
- Long explanation video from Meebo’s CEO
- Meebo blog announcement
- Meebo press release
Press: