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Starting today (Jan. 4), Google kicks off the trial run of its new Tracking Protection feature, set to eventually clamp down on website access to third-party cookies by default. Initially, this change will touch just a sliver of Chrome users — a mere one percent globally — serving as a glimpse into a third-party, cookieless future for online browsing.
Yes, you read that right. After four years of missteps and adjustments, it’s actually happening. Google is starting to phase out third-party cookies from Chrome. This marks not just the end of an era, but the beginning of a new, perplexing chapter in advertising — a terrain as unpredictable as it is uncharted. Digiday turned to seasoned ad executives for guidance through this maze, seeking clarity in the midst of profound change.
Can someone grab a crystal ball and tell me the latest ETA for third-party cookies’ grand exit from Chrome?
After numerous false starts that could rival a suspenseful track meet, the plan to purge third-party cookies from Chrome has finally stumbled out of the blocks. Here’s how it might make it over the finish line. Google is going to remove third-party cookies from one percent of traffic in its Chrome browser. Once that target is hit, the crackdown will pause while regulators scrutinize Google’s own alternatives to third-party cookies. That’s likely to finish at some point in the second half of the year. And once it does, the cookie crackdown starts back up again, with Google looking to make its browser completely rid of third-party cookies by the end of the year.
“It [this moment] makes it real,” said Loch Rose, chief analytics officer at Epsilon. “We can start to look at that one percent [of third-party cookieless] traffic to test out what the reach is for the people using those browsers. It changes the dynamic of those conversations.”
Hang on, that sounds uncharacteristically straightforward. Is that timeline likely to change?
Yes, there could be another delay. Despite Google’s insistence on the contrary, a confluence of regulatory hurdles, timing constraints and technological readiness challenges might steer this timeline toward 2025.
Tell me more.
Google has its hands tied when it comes to axing third-party cookies in Chrome, and it’s all because the U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has to give the green light first. This won’t happen until the watchdog has dug through all the details. Then there will be a “cooling-off” period lasting anywhere from 60 to 120 days. That’s the CMA’s window to do a deep dive without the chaos of Google’s changes already in play. This also puts Google in a tight spot.
Think about it: If the CMA uses the full 120 days, Google has to pull the plug on cookies by the end of September. Pushing it any later would crash into the big holiday ad rush, which Google desperately wants to steer clear of.