Arstechnica: We’ve all been there at some point—tempted to create a user account on a website that’s mildly interesting, but the hassle of creating yet another unique password is just too high. Enter the secret URL, a Web address that ends with a long jumble of numbers and letters that aren’t easily guessed.
NosPronos.com, a site for predicting winners in the World Cup, recently implemented this approach. Creating an account requires a single click and the entering of a user name. The site then assigns a unique URL for the user to bookmark. As long as it remains secret, the link locks down the account without requiring the user to enter a password or to use a computer or smartphone that stores a previously acquired authentication cookie.
