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This started today (5 jun 2024) or yesterday. Example:

Is this initiated by Google or by SE?
In the latter case, how can I disable this?

========= Follow up =========

From the answers/comments so far this seems to be a combination of Google one-tap and its SE implementation. I the answer provided in that last question does not seem to work on SE:

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    This is definitely a bug for cases where one's signed in on the network but hasn't joined the site. Commented Jun 5, 2024 at 20:03
  • Can repro on Mac, Chrome browser - pops up after roughly 5 seconds on the site. Commented Jun 5, 2024 at 23:09
  • Possibly related to sign-in on an already signed-in account Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 5:59
  • @SonictheAnonymousHedgehog I assumed it was a bug too, but later I noticed it oddly fits the past announcement. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 9:38
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    @Jan, I think you may want to add that this both happens to users that are logged in via Google (who would extent their exiting account to the new site), a Stack Exchange account (who would create a second Google based account just for that site) and anonymous users. I think this may be relevant, given that the current response is basically a "by design" claim Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:31
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    The title is close to incomprehensible. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:32
  • Could you please share the link to the page shown on the second screenshot? Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 18:03
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    @A.L-saynotoAI the cited answer Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 18:06

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
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I don't know who is initiating the prompt and if the company could have done something to prevent this behavior (it may be an unavoidable "feature" of the Google client plug-in). Yet I am pretty confident they knew about this beforehand since the original "Upcoming changes to sign-up flow on the Stack Exchange network" announcement stated that:

We’ll be removing the top banner currently shown to unregistered users on all sites. Instead, we will show a quick sign-up option as a smaller modal near the upper-right corner of the page, that allows users to sign-up using a Google account with a single click (assuming they’re logged in to that account on that browser). This is usually referred to as “Google one-tap.”

Anyway, I will leave further analysis to other users. Here, I just want to point out that as a (hopefully temporary) solution, you can use Adblock or UBlock Origin to stop the domain from loading on the network (this obviously assumes that you are using a Stack Exchange managed account, not a Google one... but I also suspect that if you where using a Google account, the prompt would just try to authenticate you silently)

https://accounts.google.com/$domain=stackexchange.com
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  • I do indeed use Google to sign in on several SE sites Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 9:36
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As mentioned in the comments, this relates to the changes mentioned in this previous announcement.

The prompt can be dismissed by clicking the X in its top right corner. It has an exponential cool down, as explained in the feature's dev implementation documentation — at its peak, after 4+ dismissals, you won't see it for 4 weeks.

In its current implementation, the dismissal is on a per-site basis. We're investigating if there are ways to make the dismissal apply cross-site.

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    That is a rather annoying implementation, anything that requires dismissal per site is already a problem for people that visit many different sites. And this one you have to dismiss again after a few hours, after a day and then after some weeks. I also assumed this would only happen for people with an active Google session, but it happens in incognito mode as well. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 12:07
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    Repeated popups are bad UX. And worse, even this does not work. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 12:41
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    I don't think this at all gets at the core of the question; unless the account you're logged in with to another Stack site is with Google one-tap, by showing that modal you're coaching the user to create a new account unlinked to the one they're currently logged in with on other sites! That sounds like a wildly confusing experience to me, unless there's some automatic merge that occurs. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:12
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    Good point, @zcoop98 — that being said, given this comment, I read the main issue as being the fact that this keeps showing up on all sites. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:36
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    Given that this prompt is also shown to anonymous users (tested in Firefox private mode) and this reply confirming my assumption that this change was a "by design" decision and not a bug, I can't help but think to Philippe quote about the dumps "assure that community members have free access to them for legitimate usages that support the community" and this specific comment an user made back then..... Is this by chance the first step into trying to put content behind a login wall and turn the site into ExpertExchange? Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:39
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    [cont] Because I can tell you now that if someone is thinking that "forcing the users to create an account to view answers is a great way to increase the userbase numbers"... that is not going to work. I mean, what the company did here is suspiciously similar to the transition period sites like Twitter/X had before forcing users to have an account just to browse the site. Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 15:41
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    Fingers crossed whomever came up with this idea gets hiccups every time someone has to dismiss that ... popup. :P Commented Jun 6, 2024 at 22:22
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    I do a lot of SE browsing from the SE home page, but I'm only member of a very few of the sites. This "Sign in with Google" thing on practically every SE link I click on is EXTREMELY ANNOYING. Please get rid of it. Commented Jun 9, 2024 at 16:34

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