Login to gmail from my site

[AB\]

i have been trying to find some sort of API to enable my users to
login to gmail from my site. Can anyone tell me if this is possible?

[AB\]

i tried to see a couple of forums but most are not clear. I have found
some PHP scripts written for this purpose but not very helpful.

[Jeff Fisher (Google)]

Hi,

What you are suggesting - using Google Accounts as a registration
mechanism for a website, is not something that the current
authentication mechanisms are meant to do.

Since you would not want to handle credentials directly, you would
have to use AuthSub. AuthSub only gives you back a token (not a user
ID of any sort) and this token changes with each sign in, so you can't
track users directly with it. Furthermore, to use AuthSub you have to
request access to some kind of private user data (like access to their
calendar) in order to retrieve a token. There is no scope to request
only authenticating the user or to get back just their e-mail address
or something equivalently unique and useful.

This is a limitation of what the authentication system was intended to
be used for, though we are aware of the requests to make it more
abstract.

Cheers,
-Jeff

[Timothy Parez]

Allowing users to authenticate with their google id just like openid
and windows live id would be a great addition to the current google
services (or even have google become an openid provider). This along
with a contact api is on the top of my wishlist and I don't think I'm
the only one :)

Timothy.

[Thufir]

However, it raises a privacy concern. If I'm reading my gmail through
your site what assurance do I have that your site hasn't been compromised?

-Thufir