Website Logins Compared

Introduction

The web thrives on user-generated content, but users need to login before submitting content. This article is a brief look at the different approaches to user authentication taken by eight popular websites

Results

YouTube and Sign Up, Sign In

youTube uses a "Sign Up" and "Sign In" naming convention. On the surface, this seems OK because it provides consistency, but I'm worried that users might be accidentally clicking on the wrong link. Below, you can see my approach to addressing this potential problem.

While my solution sacrifices naming consistency, I think it provides faster access to what I presume are the two most common functions of that menu - sign up and login.

LinkedIn and Sign Out Completely

When you click the "Sign Out" button at LinkedIn, you are brought to a logout confirmation page of sorts, where you are presented with 66 words of instruction on how to sign out more completely.

Initially, I thought LinkedIn was just trying to reinvent the "Remember Me?" wheel. But then I took a step few users probably take - I actually read the instructions. The security gaps I found next were startling and worthy of their own article.

Are Login and Logout Too Technical

It could be that Yahoo! and Google think that Login and Logout are too technical and might hurt usability. Perhaps these internet giants can't get away with using the same language for authentication that sites Facebook with younger, more technically-savvy users can.