Google has changed the login flow for those users who are not signed into a Google account but are trying to leave a review for a local business in the local knowledge panel. And it seems the change was likely made to combat pop-up blockers.
Conrad O’Connell spotted the change and created this GIF of it in action.
It seems that Google is doing this to combat pop-up blockers. With many people doing the free Windows 10 upgrade, it might have become a bigger issue since the Microsoft Edge browser, the default browser in Windows 10, comes with a popup blocker turned on by default, and it is likely that many people aren’t aware it is there, or how to turn it off.
I noticed that when I got this new overlay while clicking the “Write a review” button that a pop-up was also blocked. When I unblocked the popup, I saw this:
When you close the popup, you see the overlay login.
So there is definitely the possibility this change was made to combat those with a popup blocker who might not know they have one, which would result in a non-action when trying to click the link.
A nice change for local businesses as well, to make it easier for customers to leave a review.
I also wouldn’t be surprised if Google makes this change to other logins as well, if Google finds many users are actually using this to login due to popup blockers.
Jennifer Slegg
Latest posts by Jennifer Slegg (see all)
- 2022 Update for Google Quality Rater Guidelines – Big YMYL Updates - August 1, 2022
- Google Quality Rater Guidelines: The Low Quality 2021 Update - October 19, 2021
- Rethinking Affiliate Sites With Google’s Product Review Update - April 23, 2021
- New Google Quality Rater Guidelines, Update Adds Emphasis on Needs Met - October 16, 2020
- Google Updates Experiment Statistics for Quality Raters - October 6, 2020