Url-based identity

URL-based identity , in English url-based identity , describes an identification concept in which individual persons are identified via a URL , usually an HTTP URL. This is usually the URL to a profile in an online community or a blog that this person maintains .

background

Typically, email addresses are used as a unique identifier for people on the Internet . Strictly speaking, with an addition like mailto: in front of it, this is also about URLs. The disadvantage of e-mail addresses, however, is that messages can be sent to them, but information about a user cannot be obtained in real time. URL-based identity in the sense of HTTP-URL-based identity was launched independently of one another by initiatives such as Sxip, mIDm, LID and OpenID . Another approach are XRIs ( i-names ).

use

As soon as a person identifies himself with his personal URL on a website or in another system, this website can use the URL to automatically retrieve further information about the person and also use technologies such as OpenID to check whether the URL entered really comes from the person.

Information from URLs can usually be read out via special markings in the header of an HTML page, e.g. B. there could be a link to a profile in FOAF format. Alternatively, a protocol such as Yadis is used.