I like to think that Google is just not a conventional company and that they do everything to not become one. They creatively solve challenges (like how to keep certain cookies when a user presses "remove all") and this helps them provide unbiased, accurate, and free access to the world's information. People wanting to stay signed in can rely on them to do the right thing, even if in the near term the financial returns are not obvious. Their corporate structure is aligned with this objectivity: Serving their end users is at the heart of what they do. When people are logged off you can't really consider them your number one priority, because they don't either. Many Silicon Valley companies are under pressure to keep their earnings in line with short-term analyst's forecasts, Google is no exception here. But forced and universal log-in to Google's services optimizes for long-term return. Everybody hoped, but nobody believed, that Google would end up in this powerful position: Being able to strong-arm your power users, while still providing the best, most accurate, search results for people not logged in. In the end, this business tactic of universal and forced log-in makes the world, and by extension the internet, a better place. I know some people here raise privacy concerns, but this change clearly protects a user's privacy.