[dozy]

Regarding the article 'Let Users Explore Before They Commit' -

This is much easier said than done, and the effort and complexity will vary greatly depending on your site/app. The example used (nondescript clothing app) is one of the simpler cases, whereby the cross-session and device user-state need not be maintained, or is at least pretty minimal.

For many app developers, though, the richness of their feature-set doesn't come across until the user has a detailed state, such as level achieved, past activity, preferences, etc. Without asking users to "commit", sites/apps need to associate state with an anonymous user.

Unfortunately, it's not quite trivial to maintain the concept of an anonymous user. For one, the lengths the mobile industry is going to restrict the use of unique device identifiers poses a complexity to identify the same device across sessions. Moreover, anonymous users pose an issue for services with a value proposition behind their cross-device/platform support. Also, for small sites, it may not be trivial to introduce a data-model that supports anonymous data, which either needs to be thrown out or eventually merged with account-linked data. Similarly, 3rd-party engagement and funnel analysis of anonymous users is also a hard problem, as when the user does eventually identify themselves with an account, you need to merge their previously anonymous data into their account. Some services call this Aliasing.

I'll echo other comments that the content is sparse - this section specifically speaks as if registration count is the sole goal of the target audience. A comprehensive document would account other conversion-like goals that site/app makers might have, and the weigh the cost-benefit analysis of requiring registration.

[kinlan]

We are certainly planning on making these sections more comprehensive. This is just the first iteration of this and as we get more feedback and we create the deeper guidance this will certainly grow. The way this is presented right now is "people found this experience frustrating, don't do it." We need to dive more into "these are 2-3 patterns that we know work really well.". A lot of feedback we recieved is that actually a lot of developers want the seed of the guidance first, specific guidance a little later.

I think you hit the nail on the head about anonymous users. It is hard, and there are patterns that we have not fully explored yet such as sign in on add to checkout.

[jfoster]

Google may also not be the best party to listen to for some of this advice. Google has an interest in ensuring they can index as much as possible. If they can't, it's their product that is less valuable. There are enough prominent sites not doing this (facebook, quora, etc.) that it seems Google may be mixing up what's good for you with what's good for them.

[sehr]

I don't think this document was created by a faceless organization.

[idlewords]

I've found a no-questions-asked refund policy for the first few days of the account much more satisfactory than trial or free accounts.