In documentation, don't make excessive claims. An *excessive claim* is an assertion
in the documentation that does any of the following:

- Makes a statement about performance or cost that isn't easily verifiable with data that's available to the reader.
- Makes a statement about security that would be invalidated by a security incident.
- Makes a statement that might be interpreted as subjective or even disparaging, especially about third-party products.

When you're assessing whether some text makes an excessive claim, take into account
not just what's true today about a product's performance, cost, security, or
functionality, but what might be true in the future.

Consider the following guidelines:

- When you describe products, avoid superlatives like *best*, *simplest*, *fastest*, *never*, and *always*. Similarly, be careful about words like *ensure* and *guarantee* and use them only when something can truly be ensured or guaranteed.
- If you make specific performance claims---how fast a product is, how much storage it requires, and so on---make sure that you reference the source of your information.
- If documentation claims that a product is secure, the documentation is invalid (and not credible) if someone succeeds in compromising the product. It's safer to suggest that a feature "helps with security" or "is designed for security" because those statements are true even if a security incident occurs.
- A statement that you make about a competitive product might be untrue if you misinterpret how the product works, or later if the other company comes out with a new release.

The safest approach is always to write factually and objectively, limiting what you say to
verifiable information that will be true over the lifespan of your documentation.

Recommended: Our product
distributes datasets and computation in memory across a cluster, and
therefore it can be faster for this scenario than ExampleCorporation's product. For
more information, see [Performance comparison](https://www.google.com/).

Not recommended: Our product is
faster than ExampleCorp's product.

Recommended: Using our security product
is part of an overall strategy that helps prevent account takeovers from phishing attacks.

Not recommended: Our security product
prevents account takeovers from phishing attacks.