Yandex protects users, Google adds new search feature

Publication date: 11 January 2019

Yandex protects users from intrusive notifications

Yandex has started to impose sanctions on websites that collect push notification subscriber bases. In particular, these are websites that force users to subscribe to generally useless push notifications. For example:

the website will be blocked until the user agrees to subscribe;

the website takes advantage of users’ inattention: the user sees the “Click ‘Allow’ if you are 18+” button but misses that he or she also subscribes to notifications by clicking on this “Allow” button;

the user refuses to subscribe to notifications, he or she is redirected to another website with a new push notification permission request. Redirection will continue until the user finally agrees.

Such websites will get lower search engine ranking and be marked with a danger warning.

The website owner who wants to get out from under sanctions has to follow all instructions in Yandex.Webmaster and click on the “I’ve fixed everything” button. Yandex will check the website again, and remove all restrictions if everything is fine.

Instagram makes it possible to post the same content to multiple accounts

A new feature allows iOS Instagram users to post the same photos or videos to multiple accounts simultaneously. As an Instagram spokesperson noted, the feature will be useful for those who often post to several accounts: for companies or users who want to promote content across profiles. At the same time, Instagram aims to keep the feed original and, therefore, does not allow to repost your own or other people’s posts.

Google search becomes even more personalized

Google has added a new search feature, and now each user has activity cards where his or her search queries are collected and grouped by topics.

When entering a search query, the user finds an activity card at the top of the results page with related links to pages he or she has visited in the past and related searches he or she has done.

Activity cards are available on mobile web and the English Google app in the U.S.