Reddit plans limited tests of a primarily logged-in experience

In an interview with Axios, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman said the change is intended to improve the user experience and advertising and prevent bots from scraping Reddit’s data. He said it was not a response to changes in Google Search. The announcement comes alongside a decline in search referrals: Axios reported that Reddit described referral traffic as “down meaningfully in Q3” in a shareholder letter and said daily users could decline by a “low-double-digit percentage” in Q4 if search referral trends persist. The Verge reported that the letter put October’s drop at more than 1 million search referrals on average per week.

An account will not require a real name or real-world identity, according to Axios. Reddit is also relaunching an in-app incognito mode for browsing and searching without affecting a logged-in account, though the mode will be read-only.