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.