Why google chrome sucks the sweat from a dead buffalo's balls
 

Homegrrl somehow did something to her laptop and no longer has google chrome on it.

I went to DL it today and it wouldn't let me dl it w/o giving them my cell#

Fuck them and the horse they rode in on. practically every time I try to log into my email they ask me for it and every time I tell them to go fuck themselves.

Fucking douchebags.

Been there. Somehow I got around the cell phone number requirement. I think I got to whatever I was trying to download with a different link and it didn't ask for the number or gave me the option of continuing w/o the number...but damn if I can remember how.

I've sworn off everything Google but the web and image searches.

You are weird.

I used this link: https://www.google.com/intl/en/chrome/browser/ and it let me download the installer package (using Firefox), then when the installer (approx 770k) was downloaded, I executed it and the installer downloaded Chrome and installed it and launched it. About two minutes, a couple clicks and no questions at all, not about my cell number, nothing.

I have no understanding of what this thread is about... since when do you have to give your phone number to get Chrome? Is this a country-specific thing?
I'm in the UK and I downloaded in about 2 minutes and have used it with no trouble ever since. No phone number giving.

foot, go to ninite.com and get it. UTe approved, LJ tested. 100%win

Yesterday, I logged into a secondary Gmail account after not logging into it for almost a year, and Google asked for my phone number. There was no obvious way to avoid it or decline, so I closed the window and tried logging in again, and it let me. So Google asking for your phone number is a real thing.

Yeah, Gmail has my cellphone number, under the pretenses of texting me if my account information is ever lost or hacked. Whatever, I don't care. I've decided there's no point in trying to avoid the inevitable day when 100% of our information is available to anyone who wants it, and every single thing we do is viewable online. That, or the apocalypse will come, in which case my phone won't work anymore anyway, so no one can spam me on it.

Gmail has been pestering me for my mobile number for ages. I always skip that step, it lets me.

If I tell it, I just know it's going to start asking me for dates.

Google is combining security into a common database. To make access easier. But that means if someone 'hacks' your password, then Google cannot give you back your accounts. The mobile phone numbers is the security feature so that you can prove who you are. So that Google can restore access to the original account holder.

We had this discussion eons ago. Desperately needed was a standardize database so that you can prove to anyone who you are. And so that anyone stealing your identity can be quickly identified by you. Current no such feature exists or has even been proposed.

Definitely not possible in a world where wacko extremists fear anything new. Where the only purpose is for America to fail. So Google is doing the best they can in an adversarial environment. Google needs a number that only you own and control. A social security number could never do that.

Sure they are not just trying to suck you into android? Android is good.

Offer them prunes

Unless your phone gets stolen. Granted, this isn't practical for spammers, since you can't steal a million cellphones at a time. But for identity theft...

Ditch Chrome get Chromium. Same thing, without all of the Google baggage.

Not terribly straightforward for Windows users, however: http://superuser.com/questions/20360...omium-binaries

You want a phone #, I'll give ya one. 1 80005551212