Patent ID: 8763096

Claim:
A computer-implemented method for managing authentication, at least a portion of the method being performed by a computing system comprising at least one processor, the method comprising: identifying authentication-capabilities information of an online service by: querying a predefined location of a provider of the online service for the authentication-capabilities information, and receiving, from the provider of the online service and in response to the query, the authentication-capabilities information from the online service, wherein the predefined location is in a same relative location where at least one other online service stores information about authentication capabilities; identifying, within the authentication-capabilities information, a specification indicating an authentication function supported by the online service and indicating how a remote computing agent can interact with the online service to perform the authentication function supported by the online service, wherein the authentication function comprises at least one of a registration function, a log-in function, a password change function, a password reset function, a function for resetting authentication information, a function for disabling authentication, and/or a function for changing an authentication setting; presenting a user with an option to have the authentication function performed automatically on behalf of the user; receiving input from the user indicating that the authentication function is to be performed automatically on behalf of the user; using the specification to interact with the online service to perform the authentication function instead of requiring input from the user to perform the authentication function, wherein using the specification to interact with the online service is performed by the remote computing agent.