Once the OpenID realm white listing is out of the way (either by registering a realm or when Google removes the white list), you’d be able to log in using “https://www.google.com/accounts/o8/id” as an identity URL – no special buttons required. If they wanted it’d be pretty easy to make “google.com” provide the same discovery information, similar to what Yahoo has done. Of course, this isn’t a big deal while the white list is in place since such sites will probably be set up with a button.

If I did, it’s mainly because Google does indeed have this habit of not really engaging with the community at large all that well. I got very tired over the past year of listening to folks like Eric Chu spout FUD like “existing open source projects don’t ship on schedule” (in spite of the fact that GNOME ships every six months, like clockwork), that “existing open source projects are too desktop-oriented” (which is simply arrant nonsense), and the like, as justifications for reinventing wheels all over the place–rather than actually working with the community–with Android…