Google you are so sad, you drive me mad

Google has tried a new trick to lure in people to their destined-to-die Social Network, aka Google+

Update August 3 7:32 GMT+2:
This works on Internet Explorer 8. I haven't been able to reproduce this on other browsers and versions

Why the harsh words? Because I'm appalled by the method they choose. If you're not getting enough attention for your product or service, you should try to make it more attractive (financially, operationally, which ever way) - not invent cunning ways to whip people towards or into it

What has Google tried now? They limit your Google Search results to 20, unless you sign up for Google+.
Let me repeat that: Google limits your Google Search results (to 20), unless you sign up for Google+

How sad is that? To me it feels like they put a knife to my throat. "Sign up for Google+ or else!" - or else we'll only give you 20 search results and force you to either sign out and try again, or use Bing?

Google has stopped being sexy, broken Google Docs and now this: I really don't know where they are heading or even trying to go, but it seems to me Google is suffering from growing pains: they've gone from wild and crazy cowboy entrepreneur garage geeks to a regular big fat boring enterprise where passion is out the door, everything is compromised to death, and no one cares anymore

Exaggeration intended of course, and it's all an assumption anyway, but what I do know is that I feel the results of some movement going on inside Google - and the feeling is gloomy, with a bad aftertaste. From a feature rolled out half a year ago that was opt-in, it has now become something you can't opt-out of

When I'm signed in with an account that's not linked to Google+, I get the picture at the very top

The only links to click on, are either the one saying Upgrade to Google+ (which will lead me to the obvious) and the one saying "20 personal results". If I click the latter, I get:

The only link there is "See all results", which will bring me back to the first picture as shown at the top of this post. Vicious circle closed...
Here's what Google Search gives me when signed in with an account that is also signed up for G+

So the final outcome? Either I do sign up for Google+, and I guess everything is back to normal after that, or I don't and my Google Search results will be reduced from unlimited to a handful, depending on what I search for

I suspect Google can give me "personal search results" because of the "Switch accounts" feature I've been using lately, so it knows that my own G+ account is linked to the account I'm using in this example - hence why I'm getting back Google Search results from G+ account A when I'm signed in with Google account B

Illegal? Probably, or highly likely. Bad form? Absolutely