SAML is being applied in a number of different ways, one of which is Web single sign-on (SSO).

In web SSO, a user authenticates to one web site and then, without additional authentication, is able to access some personalized or customized resources at another site. SAML enables web SSO through the communication of an authentication assertion from the first site to the second which, if confident of the origin of the assertion, can choose to log in the user as if they had authenticated directly.