I have noticed quite a few different companies putting a login script on the front page for their customers. Has this been proven to be effective? Just looking for the PROs and CONs on this.
Well I think it makes things a lot more secure for customers and makes things a lot easier to manage from their point of view. I think it's better to have on your front page.
It all depends on your site. If you are managing a business site then you should do that to keep your content secure. If you are having nice content based site then it is not advisable to have one on the index page itself, rather they(users) would go somewhere and find the needed information, without registering. Actually people hate to see the login screen everytime, and they tend to move to other sites.
From my prospective a link is fine. You don't need the entire selection. My solution was to create a link which effectively drops down a small box which allows you to enter a Username & Password and a Login Button.
I think clients would benefit from it, however we don't do it on our site because it would be to messy. Some other designs are suitable for logins though