If you want an account now you are going to be asked for your mobile number
wow glad i already have a ton of accounts
That's lame. Good thing I already have a lot of Gmail accounts, like 1984. My main one is named after my Piriform account name: Icedrake.
Well, strange.
I just signed up for a new gmail acct, didn't get asked for anything. Logged out of it and back in, worked OK.
No offense meant, I wasn't checking the accuracy of the information, just wanted to know so I could look clever if any relatives asked.
Could it be that is only required in certain regions?
I just checked it too, and the Gmail account creating page didn't look anything like the picture in Hazel's link. I was also thinking that it might be for specific regions/countries too. (Btw, I only checked the actual account making page, i didn't make an account just to see if the email verification thing happened, it might be after the account making page.)