Amazon PayPhrase announced

Aims to offer web-wide payment system with key phrases replacing passwords

29 October 2009 12:58 GMT / By Duncan Geere

Amazon has announced a new initiative that aims to make it easier to pay for things on the Web. The online retail giant is launching "PayPhrase", which is a service that lets you replace usernames, passwords, etc with a simple, but unique, catchphrase.

Customers on Amazon can create up to 20 of these phrases, and associate them with a pin number, shipping address and credit card. Then, when you want to buy something, you can just enter the phrase for a quick checkout experience. You don't have to share any info with the third party site.

The difficulty comes when all the good phrases are snapped up. You can bet "this one goes up to 11" will be taken pretty quick. As might "You are not prepared!". You'll have to start making up random statements that might prove tricky to remember.

While this isn't going to destroy PayPal, or Google Checkout, overnight, it'll be interesting to see what happens in the longer term - will consumers prefer this approach over having to maintain endless site logins? Time will tell.

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