Over the past few weeks I've been keeping track of the different ways each Google service handles login procedures. I would have thought that once I am "cookied" by a Google service that all services would authenticate my session in the same manner but this is not the case.Below are some of the Google services and what happens when I attempt to load the service assuming that I am already cookied.

At first I was thinking that it's great that Google forces me to enter my password when I want to process orders for my startup in Google Checkout. But if that's the case, shouldn't Google AdSense follow the same authentication pattern? What about Google Docs and Calendar - documents in both of those services could be just as sensitive as financial information in Google Checkout/AdSense or AdWords.

Earlier this month, Google's mail service was out of service. Many of the comments (and in emails I received) noted how many confidential and important documents are held in user's Gmail accounts.

I'd like to see Google follow the same procedures for all Google services. Or perhaps the better option is to allow users to select what level of authentication they would like for each service. Either way, I'd like to see some consistency based on the "security level" of each application.