Using angularjs without $routeProvider & $location?

I have been playing with angularjs for couple of days and like it so far. I am trying to build a chrome extension which attaches a small widget below every gmail message when the user is on gmail.com. So far so good. As part of authentication code, I handle 401 error in this way. Whenever there is a 401 error, I use $location.path( "/login" ) to redirect the user to the login screen/template. This changes browser address bar which seems to be the default behavior. So, if the current address was https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/, it becomes https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#/login. But mine is not standalone app, its more like widget that attaches to a div when on gmail.com site. My app should not mess with the browser address bar. I am now starting to think if I can really use angularjs for my app as I am going against the default behavior. Should I use angularjs at all?

I also posted it here https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups#!topic/angular/TrT54r_IYmg

You can emit/broadcast events on rootScope and subscribe to them in your login directive.

Here is little clue http://www.espeo.pl/2012/02/26/authentication-in-angularjs-application

it uses interceptors to catch 401

myapp.config(function($httpProvider) {
  var interceptor = ['$rootScope','$q', function(scope, $q) {

    function success(response) {
      return response;
    }

    function error(response) {
      var status = response.status;

      if (status == 401) {
        var deferred = $q.defer();
        var req = {
          config: response.config,
          deferred: deferred
        }
        scope.requests401.push(req);
        scope.$broadcast('event:loginRequired');
        return deferred.promise;
      }
      // otherwise
      return $q.reject(response);

    }

    return function(promise) {
      return promise.then(success, error);
    }

  }];
  $httpProvider.responseInterceptors.push(interceptor);
});

And simplest directive could be this

myapp.directive("loginForm",function($http){
  return function(scope,element,attrs){
    element.hide();

    scope.$root.$on('event:loginRequired', function(event) {
      element.show();
    });

    scope.login=function(){
      // You can set controller for this directive, but I skiped that part for sake of simplicity
      var payload = $.param({username: scope.username, password: scope.password});
      var config = {
        headers: {'Content-Type':'application/x-www-form-urlencoded; charset=UTF-8'}
      }
      $http.post('/some/login/url', payload, config).success(function(data) {
        if (data === 'AUTHENTICATION_SUCCESS') {
          element.hide();
        }else{
          alert("username or password was wrong, please try again");
          elements.find("form").reset(); // reset form, or you coud reset just password field
        }
      });
    };


  };
});

Now, directive in action

<div login-form>
   <form ng-submit="login()">
      <label for="username">Username</label>
      <input type="text" id="username" ng-model="username"/>
      <br />
      <label for="password">Password</label>
      <input type="password" id="password" ng-model="password" />
      <hr/>
      <input type="submit" value="Login" />
   </form>
</div>

Please note code above is not tested, probably there is some misspell or something. But let me know if you have trouble implementing this, I will try to take some time and effort to make it work.