<s>
WebFinger	B-Protocol
is	O
a	O
protocol	O
specified	O
by	O
the	O
Internet	O
Engineering	O
Task	O
Force	O
IETF	O
that	O
allows	O
for	O
discovery	O
of	O
information	O
about	O
people	O
and	O
things	O
identified	O
by	O
a	O
URI	B-Protocol
.	O
</s>
<s>
Information	O
about	O
a	O
person	O
might	O
be	O
discovered	O
via	O
an	O
acct	O
:	O
URI	B-Protocol
,	O
for	O
example	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
a	O
URI	B-Protocol
that	O
looks	O
like	O
an	O
email	O
address	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
WebFinger	B-Protocol
is	O
specified	O
as	O
the	O
discovery	O
protocol	O
for	O
OpenID	O
Connect	O
,	O
which	O
is	O
a	O
protocol	O
that	O
allows	O
one	O
to	O
more	O
easily	O
log	B-General_Concept
in	I-General_Concept
to	O
various	O
sites	O
on	O
the	O
Internet	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
The	O
WebFinger	B-Protocol
protocol	O
is	O
used	O
by	O
the	O
federated	B-Application
social	O
networks	O
,	O
such	O
as	O
GNU	B-Protocol
social	I-Protocol
,	O
Diaspora	O
,	O
or	O
Mastodon	B-Application
,	O
to	O
discover	O
users	O
on	O
federated	B-Application
nodes	O
and	O
pods	O
,	O
as	O
well	O
as	O
the	O
remoteStorage	O
protocol	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
As	O
a	O
historical	O
note	O
,	O
the	O
name	O
"	O
WebFinger	B-Protocol
"	O
is	O
derived	O
from	O
the	O
old	O
ARPANET	O
Finger	B-Application
protocol	I-Application
,	O
but	O
it	O
is	O
a	O
very	O
different	O
protocol	O
designed	O
for	O
HTTP	B-Protocol
.	I-Protocol
</s>
<s>
The	O
protocol	O
payload	O
is	O
represented	O
in	O
JSON	B-General_Concept
format	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
On	O
Mastodon	B-Application
,	O
any	O
federated	B-Application
servers	O
can	O
look	O
up	O
users	O
by	O
sending	O
a	O
request	O
to	O
the	O
WebFinger	B-Protocol
endpoint	O
on	O
other	O
servers	O
.	O
</s>
<s>
Here	O
is	O
an	O
example	O
for	O
the	O
user	O
@mastodon	O
@mastodon	O
.social	O
:	O
</s>
