Agreed. I think it's important to keep in mind the context of your application when considering implementing a system like OP mentions. Although, it would interesting to provide the user a choice between a password/"secure" login and a device/"anonymous" login (with the option to later switch).

One caveat to the cookie-to-password switch: I am very good at saying, "Tomorrow." "Yeah, yeah, I'll do that tomorrow." Tomorrow comes and goes, I or a friend clear my history, whoops! Session lost.

At that point I am easily discouraged enough to stop using it.

E.g.: this happened to me with Khan Academy. I had watched so many videos on that cookie-only session, by the time it disappeared I'd long forgotten which ones I'd seen. Feeling a little discouraged, I thought, Okay, I'll get back to Khan tomorrow. Tomorrow never came.

If more people are like that, that could be a good reason not to allow cookie-only sessions for too long.

Or am I the only one?

yes, definitely. for an app like ours, where its not mission critical or the user is not communicating and contributing with/to the community, anonymous works 90% of the time.

yes, updating the article. sort of glossed over that!thank s_killk

So, you wrote an article about "The Death of the Login" before even looking up "Login" on Wikipedia?