OAuth
OAuth is an open protocol, initiated by Blaine Cook and Chris Messina, to allow secure API authentication in a simple and standard method from desktop and web applications. For consumer developers, OAuth is a method to publish and interact with protected data. For Service Provider developers, OAuth gives users access to their data while protecting their account credentials. The OAuth Core 1.0 final draft was released on October 3, 2007.
History
OAuth began in November 2006, during which Blaine Cook was developing the Twitter OpenID implementation. Together with Chris Messina they met with David Recordon and Larry Halff to discuss using OpenID with the Twitter API to delegate authentication. They concluded that there were no open standards for API access delegation.
The OAuth Discussion group was created, in April 2007, for the small group of implementers to write the draft proposal for an open protocol. DeWitt Clinton from Google caught wind of the OAuth project, and expressed his interest in supporting the effort. In July 2007 the team drafted an initial specification. Eran Hammer-Lahav came on board and provided a enormous amount of help coordinating the many OAuth contributions and creating a more formal specification. On October 3, 2007, the OAuth Core 1.0 final draft was released.
What is OAuth?
OAuth allows the user to grant access to their private resources on one site (the Service Provider), to another site (called Consumer). OAuth is about giving access to your information without sharing all of your identity.