Update: The Account Manager is no longer maintained. Building on this experiment, we have conceived BrowserID. Please consider using it instead.

Last month Mozilla Labs announced a new concept series on online identity. As part of this exploration, we developed the Account Manager.

The Account Manager makes it incredibly easy for users to create new accounts with optional randomly generated passwords, and log into and out of them with just a click. As a web developer, adding support for this feature could take as little as fifteen minutes of hacking (in fact, we’ll mention the first 5 people to add support – read below to learn more.).

We want to make signing into websites easier for all Firefox users, and are looking to ship this feature as soon as possible in Firefox. As part of that process we’re looking for feedback to refine the specification. Now is a really good time to get involved in defining the spec.

There are three things that you can do right now:

Read the draft specification.

Join our discussion group.

Come to our in-person meet-up on May 20th.

This feature is currently available as an experimental add-on, available on the Account Manager homepage.

Here’s a video where you can get a basic idea of how Account Manager works today:

How Does It Work?

The Account Manager specification proposes two small changes to Web sites: