Maybe we can dial back the hyperbole here. I agree that this (which is the Notification API, not the Web Push API) is being abused, but I can't recall having seen it on any major news web site. I actually see it far more on stuff like tech blogs that are also obsessed with converting me to being a newsletter reader.

But yes, it's infuriating. Safari is probably the worst as it presents a modal popup - at least in Chrome it doesn't take focus. The solution seems very simple: make it only work in response to a click event. Which is something browsers already do for a lot of stuff (like opening a window) and I'm mystified as to why the browser manufacturers didn't factor this in when implementing in the first place.

https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=740961

https://github.com/WICG/interventions/issues/49

"A PushSubscription contains all the information we need to send a push emssage[sic] to that user. You can "kind of" think of this as an ID for that user's device."

"A push service receives a network request, validates it and delivers a push message to the appropriate browser. If the browser is offline, the message is queued until the the browser comes online."

"Each browser can use any push service they want, it's something developers have no control over. This isn't a problem because every push service expects the same API call. Meaning you don't have to care who the push service is. You just need to make sure that your API call is valid."

"The data you send with a push message must be encrypted. The reason for this is that it prevents push services, who could be anyone, from being able to view the data sent with the push message. This is important given that it's the browser [not the user] who decides which push service to use, which could open the door to browsers using a push service that isn't safe or secure."

"When you trigger a push message, the push service will receive the API call and queue the message. This message will remain queued until the user's device comes online and the push service can deliver the messages. The instructions you can give to the push service define how the push message is queued."

"When the push service does deliver a message, the browser will receive the message, decrypt any data and dispatch a push event in your service worker. A service worker is a "special" JavaScript file. The browser can execute this JavaScript without your page being open. It can even execute this JavaScript when the browser is closed. A service worker also has API's, like push, that aren't available in the web page (i.e. API's that aren't available out of a service worker script)."

Hard to imagine how anyone could forsee that such a "feature" could be abused.

Once the abuse become big enough (like the exit popups, flash ads, etc), I hope this too will get blocked by default.

[1] https://pushcrew.com/features/

Missing the point. This is actually a useful feature, and is part of the big service workers push. The fact that some sites are using it poorly (to say the least), is on the sites themselves. As it has already been pointed out, you _can_ disable them on a per-site basis, and at least on Safari, the same site won't ask again if you said no once (Preferences > Websites > Notifications).

I don't get how this feature is at all useful. I find that any feature that can be abused, will be. And this is certainly no different.

You can also disable JS entirely.

I hate trying to use a site and it isnt working for some reason just to find out it is prompting me for some damn notifications!

https://superuser.com/a/1156927

I think it's more that, at the moment, most people only relate it to low quality sites.

Once it begins to catch on, on more mainstream sites, then it will become more of a topic.