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Your identity is still Anonymous
Christo Jacob
Friday, June 1, 2012
"On the Internet, nobody knows you're a dog". Concept of identifying you in internet used to be unstable. Now the phenomena have changed as the internet market has matured. The concept of ‘online identity’ has become a critical issue as identifying a web user is really a serious one for enterprises. Unlike virtual world, in real world there are established systems to prove your identity. Now most of the enterprises are feeling a real need of web user identity and there is a lack of established systems to reveal your identity in virtual world. Lately social networks and major internet players have taken it very seriously and that's why big players like Facebook, Twitter, and Google are keen today to bet huge on identity race.

This second phase of internet boom is much contrary to the debates which we had two years back, where many were doubtful to say “RIP” to web. But today, we are seeing web evolving in multiple areas due to increase in ad spending. Foremost, being shift in the consumer behavior making the rate of iOS and Android smart device adoption more than four times faster than that of personal computers. Moreover we are seeing a trend among the average smart phone user where they spending more time in mobile applications than they do browsing the web. In the coming years, we will see our mobile and web account becoming a one-stop-point to access for seamless data access and establishing them as reliable identity service platform on the internet. When this happens, it would be a big deal for big players like Twitter, Facebook and Google.

Even though, Twitter has a fairly put in efforts like powerful partnership with Apple through deep integration of the network into iOS 5 , Facebook making early moves on identity arena, and Google trying to bring in change in search experience through Google+ service, these players have to still not solved the identity crisis. We need to find a solution, where the identity created in a platform is valid in virtual world as well as real world — government organization, financial organizations, banks, schools, airports and many more, which will trim down complexities of having multiple accounts and passwords for online and social activities.

I believe U.S. is still the world's leading innovator and innovation is still not dead! If the best of world's leading innovators and research organizations can come together to come up with a ubiquitous identifier, where in virtual world and real world can identify a user, we are solving the identity crisis to a greater extend.

Please do share your thoughts with us.
Christo Jacob
Managing Editor
editor@siliconindia.com

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