Patent ID: 7337468

Claim:
An apparatus facilitating integration of separate online services, comprising a session state module operative to generate session identifiers in response to requests for a session identifier; maintain session state information in association with the session identifiers, wherein the session state information comprises a user identifier; a server module operative to receive requests for session identifiers from a third-party site, wherein the third-party requests include user identifiers; authenticate the requests for session identifiers; access the session state module to obtain session identifiers for authenticated requests; transmit the session identifiers to the third-party site in response to the requests for session identifiers; receive requests from users, wherein the requests include session identifiers transmitted to the third-party sites; control access to resources available to the users by validating the session identifiers in the requests from users against the session state information maintained by the session state module; wherein the requests for a session identifier are transmitted indirectly via a host system corresponding to a user of the third-party site; and wherein the requests for session identifiers include a digital signatures created with an encryption key associated with the third-party site; and wherein the server module is operative to authenticate the requests for session identifiers by validating the digital signature.