GAE: New Google Account interface

I'm using Google's user api on Google App Engine for authentification. As nearly everyone have a Google Account and api is easy to implement, that solution is convenient.

The problem is, though, with user who do not have a Google Account (or have no idea what a Google Account is). Where the api provides a nice interface to log in/log out and redirect immediately a开发者_StackOverflow社区nd easily to the app, nothing is said to developers about potential new users.

So here are a couple of things worth noticing:

1. Google' new Google Account page (https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount) is pretty straightforward, but not convenient at all for new users of a GAE app: no mention of anything not Google (users who don't really know what authentification is won't have any clue of why they need to open an account with Google), dead end (won't lead anywhere in the end), ugly.
2. GAE Log In screen includes a link to the New Google Account page. This link is of the form:

https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount?continue=http%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2F_ah%2Flogin%3Fcontinue%3Dhttp%3A%2F%2Fexample.com%2Fprofile%2F&service=ah&ltmpl=gm&sig=0aa0a000aa000a00000aa0000a000aa

(Where example.com is the return url provided to the API). Great! But the situation is in no way different than it was: still a dead end, still no mention of any non-Google app, still ugly).

So, I'm asking, is there any imaginative way to provide a nicer interface for new users? Have anyone have ideas of how to present the process to the new users (a video for how to create a new account? some kind of tutorial page? etc.)? Just trying to think outside of the technical box here...

Regarding the various authentication options you can check out the Java or Python docs on OpenID (http://openid.net/) Basically this allows supporting authentication by different agents, which includes Google accounts or even your own GAE application's custom implementation.

Furthermore you can check out User Experience summary for Federated Login for more information regarding UX considerations and best practices - with user authentication.