JanRain
Encyclopedia
Janrain Inc. is a privately held technology company based in Portland, Oregon
. Janrain offers software as a service
solutions for commercial businesses and websites to connect their sites to the social web. Janrain's flagship product enables a website's users to register or login with their existing social network accounts and share content from the site or their activities with friends on multiple social networks. The company has roots in the the OpenID
community that date back to its inception in 2005.
as its flagship product) and Desktop.com
. The company developed schtuff.com, a wiki hosting service which would later be acquired by PBWiki
in 2007.
In 2005, Brad Fitzpatrick
of LiveJournal
developed the OpenID
protocol. Shortly thereafter, Janrain became an active participant in the OpenID community and developed the open source
libraries which today power the majority of the websites accepting OpenID logins. The company also was involved in forming the OpenID Foundation, an organization seeking to advance the market for the technology.
In 2006, Janrain created MyOpenID.com, an identity provisioning service that allows internet users to obtain an OpenID. MyOpenID remains one of the largest independent OpenID Providers today.
In October, 2008, Janrain introduced Janrain Engage (formerly RPX), a software as a service solution enabling websites to register and login users with their existing Facebook
, Google
, Yahoo, AOL
, MySpace
, Windows Live ID
and Twitter
accounts, and share content and site activities with friends on multiple social networks. Soon after, Universal Music Group
announced the integration of Janrain Engage on over 100 music artist sites under the Interscope-Geffen-A&M
record label. In March, 2009, KickApps
, a social networking platform, integrated Janrain Engage into its platform. In July, 2009, Sears announced the integration of Janrain Engage onto its community websites for Sears and Kmart
.
In December, 2009, Janrain announced that it raised $3.25 million in venture capital funding to accelerate product development and market adoption for its social media and user management solutions. The funding round was led by DFJ Frontier, RPM Ventures and Anthem Ventures.
The use of social login and social sharing tools has been particularly popular among media companies, and in June, 2010, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune
, Meredith Corporation
, The Dallas Morning News
(a property of Belo
), E. W. Scripps Company
and National Geographic all began using Janrain Engage. In November, 2010, social community platform Ning
announced that it had integrated Janrain Engage into its platform to enable social login and allow users to invite their friends to join a Ning community site.. In December, 2010, VentureBeat
reported that MTV
has integrated Janrain Engage for social login and social sharing across several of its websites, including The Daily Show
, The Colbert Report, and VH1
.
, Google
, Twitter
, Yahoo, LinkedIn
or other networks, and share content or their site activities with friends on multiple social networks. Additional functionality lets users import their social network profile data and invite their friends to visit a website.
Portland, Oregon
Portland is a city located in the Pacific Northwest, near the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers in the U.S. state of Oregon. As of the 2010 Census, it had a population of 583,776, making it the 29th most populous city in the United States...
. Janrain offers software as a service
Software as a Service
Software as a service , sometimes referred to as "on-demand software," is a software delivery model in which software and its associated data are hosted centrally and are typically accessed by users using a thin client, normally using a web browser over the Internet.SaaS has become a common...
solutions for commercial businesses and websites to connect their sites to the social web. Janrain's flagship product enables a website's users to register or login with their existing social network accounts and share content from the site or their activities with friends on multiple social networks. The company has roots in the the OpenID
OpenID
OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities...
community that date back to its inception in 2005.
History
Janrain was founded in 2005 by Larry Drebes, who previously founded Four 11 Corporation (with RocketMailRocketmail
RocketMail was one of the first major, free webmail services. The service was originally a product of Four11 Corporation. For a brief time, RocketMail battled with Hotmail for the number-one spot among free webmail services. Four11, including RocketMail, was acquired by Yahoo! in 1997. Yahoo!...
as its flagship product) and Desktop.com
Desktop.com
Desktop.com was an Application Service Provider founded by Katie Burke, Larry Drebes, and Karen Drebes. They created a Web application compatible with the Internet Explorer 4 browser that effectively simulates a user's desktop over the World Wide Web, so that it is accessible from anywhere.A full...
. The company developed schtuff.com, a wiki hosting service which would later be acquired by PBWiki
PBwiki
PBworks is a commercial real-time collaborative editing system created by David Weekly, with Ramit Sethi and Nathan Schmidt joining shortly thereafter as co-founders. Based in San Mateo, California, the company's original name stems from their belief that "making a wiki is as easy as making a...
in 2007.
In 2005, Brad Fitzpatrick
Brad Fitzpatrick
Bradley Joseph "Brad" Fitzpatrick , is an American programmer. He is best known as the creator of LiveJournal and is the author of a variety of free software projects such as memcached....
of LiveJournal
LiveJournal
LiveJournal is a virtual community where Internet users can keep a blog, journal or diary. LiveJournal is also the name of the free and open source server software that was designed to run the LiveJournal virtual community....
developed the OpenID
OpenID
OpenID is an open standard that describes how users can be authenticated in a decentralized manner, eliminating the need for services to provide their own ad hoc systems and allowing users to consolidate their digital identities...
protocol. Shortly thereafter, Janrain became an active participant in the OpenID community and developed the open source
Open source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
libraries which today power the majority of the websites accepting OpenID logins. The company also was involved in forming the OpenID Foundation, an organization seeking to advance the market for the technology.
In 2006, Janrain created MyOpenID.com, an identity provisioning service that allows internet users to obtain an OpenID. MyOpenID remains one of the largest independent OpenID Providers today.
In October, 2008, Janrain introduced Janrain Engage (formerly RPX), a software as a service solution enabling websites to register and login users with their existing Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, Yahoo, AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, MySpace
MySpace
Myspace is a social networking service owned by Specific Media LLC and pop star Justin Timberlake. Myspace launched in August 2003 and is headquartered in Beverly Hills, California. In August 2011, Myspace had 33.1 million unique U.S. visitors....
, Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID
Windows Live ID is a single sign-on web service developed and provided by Microsoft that allows users to log in to many websites using one account...
and Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
accounts, and share content and site activities with friends on multiple social networks. Soon after, Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...
announced the integration of Janrain Engage on over 100 music artist sites under the Interscope-Geffen-A&M
Interscope-Geffen-A&M
Interscope-Geffen-A&M is an umbrella label, owned by Universal Music Group. The company was formed in 1999, when Geffen Records and A&M Records were merged into Interscope Records—the flagship imprint of the operation....
record label. In March, 2009, KickApps
KickApps
KickApps is a hosted platform for creating social networks and adding social software features, video players and widgets to websites. More than 100,000 sites use KickApps, including major media companies KickApps is a hosted platform for creating social networks and adding social software...
, a social networking platform, integrated Janrain Engage into its platform. In July, 2009, Sears announced the integration of Janrain Engage onto its community websites for Sears and Kmart
Kmart
Kmart, sometimes styled as "K-Mart," is a chain of discount department stores. The chain acquired Sears in 2005, forming a new corporation under the name Sears Holdings Corporation. The company was founded in 1962 and is the third largest discount store chain in the world, behind Wal-Mart and...
.
In December, 2009, Janrain announced that it raised $3.25 million in venture capital funding to accelerate product development and market adoption for its social media and user management solutions. The funding round was led by DFJ Frontier, RPM Ventures and Anthem Ventures.
The use of social login and social sharing tools has been particularly popular among media companies, and in June, 2010, The Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
, Meredith Corporation
Meredith Corporation
The Meredith Corporation is a media conglomerate based in Des Moines, Iowa, USA. The company has two divisions, National Media and Local Media.-History:...
, The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Morning News is the major daily newspaper serving the Dallas, Texas area, with a circulation of 264,459 subscribers, the Audit Bureau of Circulations reported in September 2010...
(a property of Belo
Belo
Belo Corp. is a Dallas-based media company that owns 20 commercial broadcasting television stations and two regional 24-hour cable news television channels. The company was previously known as A.H. Belo Corp. after one of the early owners of the company, Alfred Horatio Belo, now the name of the...
), E. W. Scripps Company
E. W. Scripps Company
The E. W. Scripps Company is an American media conglomerate founded by Edward W. Scripps on November 2, 1878. The company is headquartered inside the Scripps Center in Cincinnati, Ohio. Its corporate motto is "Give light and the people will find their own way."On October 16, 2007, the company...
and National Geographic all began using Janrain Engage. In November, 2010, social community platform Ning
Ning
Ning is an online platform for people and organizations to create custom social networks, launched in October 2005. Ning offers customers the ability to create a community website with a customized appearance and feel, feature sets such as photos, videos, forums and blogs, and the service layers in...
announced that it had integrated Janrain Engage into its platform to enable social login and allow users to invite their friends to join a Ning community site.. In December, 2010, VentureBeat
VentureBeat
VentureBeat is a technology blog that focuses on innovative companies and the forward-thinking executives behind them.-History:The company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall. In 2008, the New York Times called VentureBeat one of the "top blogs"...
reported that MTV
MTV
MTV, formerly an initialism of Music Television, is an American network based in New York City that launched on August 1, 1981. The original purpose of the channel was to play music videos guided by on-air hosts known as VJs....
has integrated Janrain Engage for social login and social sharing across several of its websites, including The Daily Show
The Daily Show
The Daily Show , is an American late night satirical television program airing each Monday through Thursday on Comedy Central. The half-hour long show premiered on July 21, 1996, and was hosted by Craig Kilborn until December 1998...
, The Colbert Report, and VH1
VH1
VH1 or Vh1 is an American cable television network based in New York City. Launched on January 1, 1985 in the old space of Turner Broadcasting's short-lived Cable Music Channel, the original purpose of the channel was to build on the success of MTV by playing music videos, but targeting a slightly...
.
Janrain Engage (formerly RPX)
A turnkey social login and social sharing solution. Janrain Engage lets a website's visitors register or login with their existing social network accounts from FacebookFacebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, Yahoo, LinkedIn
LinkedIn
LinkedIn is a business-related social networking site. Founded in December 2002 and launched in May 2003, it is mainly used for professional networking. , LinkedIn reports more than 120 million registered users in more than 200 countries and territories. The site is available in English, French,...
or other networks, and share content or their site activities with friends on multiple social networks. Additional functionality lets users import their social network profile data and invite their friends to visit a website.