As fantastic as that is, an avatar is only one tiny portion of an online identity, and any other change in my credentials (display name, birthday [for whatever reason], website address, instant messenger IDs, etc.) still represents a hurdle in keeping them current.

If Gravatar were extended to serve identities (via an API & “connect via Gravatar” functionality on supporting sites), a good deal of fat could be trimmed away from managing identity online. Once an account was authorized on a Gravatar account, any changes made to that account should be pushed out via API to the connected sites. (If i change my “login” email address on Gravatar, all of my connected accounts receive the updated information.)

What would really set the service apart, though, is strong yet user-friendly privacy controls (unlike Facebook’s labyrinthine settings). The ability to set the visibility of certain pieces of profile data on a per-site basis would be great (such as hiding a “Real Name” field from casual video game sites).

Furthering that idea, of linked accounts could be categorized (“Sports,” “Business,” “Family,” or whatever), different identity information could be fed to each group separately, useful if you want one of you want your sports blog tied to sports-related sites, your family picture album site for use on family blogs, etc.)

Right now, there are plenty of options for confirming an identity/registration — BrowserID, OpenID, Connect with Facebook/Twitter/G+/whatever — but there doesn’t seem to be any place out there allowing you to _manage_ your ID across networks as i’ve described above. Gravatar’s trans-site avatar service comes the closest.