MyOpenId

In year 2000, I was coining the idea of establishing a web-site neutral service that provides login/sign-in authentication for many web sites out there, so that users do not have to sign up and remember many different users names and passwords. On top of this, this service repertoire can also store users' payment info so that they don't have to reveal their credit card numbers while making online payment (yes, that's PayPal, but I did not know PayPal at that time). When was PayPal founded anyway?

I even submitted a proposal (co-authored by a friend: Leon Zhang) to start-up business plan competition organized by the National University of Singapore. I didn't even get a chance to be short-listed.

Some time after that, Microsoft launched ".NET Passport" service which is essentially of the similar nature - providing centralized common authentication. I don't think .NET passport was ever popular and had very high take-up rate. But some Web sites do use that - e.g. Expedia.com. So I don't have to apply new userid/password while buying air tickets on Expedia. I can simply use my .NET passport! Recent Windows Card Spaces is essentially the same thing as well!

In CNN Money "NEXT NET 25" startups to watch (Web 2.0 category), www.janrain.com is ranked No. 22.

[Quote] JanRain has developed a single sign-on service for multiple passwords that lets people hop freely from site to site. Business demand for JanRain's services is expected to grow as Web 2.0 entertainment and social-networking sites proliferate. [End of Quote] Otherwise, please refer to www.myopenid.com.

In fact, Singapore government's SingPass initiative for all government Web sites is also a good example.

Maybe I should try to make myself on such list next time. :P
While I spoke to my pal to try to find back the business plan we drafted from Yahoo email, we came to this conclusion: Yahoo only provided 3MB of storage space at that time... we probably have used that limited and precious space to store other more important academic documents. :(