Facebook to Replace ‘Other’ Inbox With More Visible ‘Message Requests’

Facebook’s ‘Other’ inbox, an often forgotten about section of Messenger, is being replaced with more noticeable Message Requests. The Other inbox used to contain messages from people you have no connection with on Facebook. Most often these would end up being spam accounts, but occasionally a message from someone you know would end up there. The problem with the Other inbox is that, unless you check it regularly, messages could go unnoticed for weeks, months, or whenever you remember to check it again.

 In an effort to better notify people of the messages that end up in the Other inbox, Facebook is rolling out Message Requests. Message Requests will be hard to miss, as they’re going to be displayed right at the top of the Messenger app.

  The idea behind this feature is to let non-connections make it known to you that they want to connect with you. You can deny the request if it looks like spam, or accept it if it’s someone you recognize.

  When a Message Request comes through you’ll receive some basic information about the person sending it — such as name, location, and mutual friends.

  This update is a double-edged sword in the sense that it will help you notice more messages from non-connections, but it will also make it easier for non-connection to attempt to get in touch with you.

  In order to find someone and send a message, all you need is their name. When you take into account that you don’t need a Facebook account to use Messenger, it’s almost like names are the new phone numbers.

 David Marcus of the messaging team at Facebook summed this up in a post today:

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Google Warns Deceptive Mobile Redirects Result in Manual Actions

  Google is getting more aggressive in its fight against deceptive mobile-only redirects. In most cases mobile-only redirects are perfectly fine, as long as they help people access the content they requested in a mobile-friendly format. Mobile-only redirects become a problem when they direct smartphone traffic to unwanted content — such as a page or website they didn’t intend to visit.

  Not only is that activity frowned upon, it goes against Google’s webmaster guidelines and can result in a manual action penalty if the search giant finds out. Google is giving Webmasters yet another warning because now it has become known that deceptive redirects sometimes occur without the Webmaster even knowing about it.

How can this happen? Google gives two possible explanations:

• Advertising: A script installed to display ads might end up redirecting mobile users to a different site, unbeknownst to the webmaster.
• Hacking: If your site gets hacked, attackers could set up redirects to spammy domains for mobile users only.

  The only way to know for sure if there are deceptive mobile redirects on your site is to search for it in Google on your phone and click on the results. In addition, Google also recommends you keep an eye on this by listening to user complaints of redirects, and monitoring analytics data for unusual activity — like a sudden drop in mobile traffic.

  If deceptive mobile redirects are in place on your site, Google recommends checking Search Console for any warnings about site hacks.

  If there’s no sign of a site hack, there could be a problem with third-party scripts/elements on your site. You can narrow down which one is causing the problem by disabling them one at a time and testing to see if the redirect issue has been fixed.

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