Big changes made to Google Chrome threaten to change the Internet forever

Later this year, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), through its Chrome browser, will stop using third-party cookies, a technology that allows users to be tracked across different websites to deliver personalized ads. Gives. Change will not be easy.

Although Google’s initiative aims to protect user privacy, many of the sites you trust and love may be at risk. This measure represents a profound restructuring of the world of advertising and the user experience on the Internet.

“The open web is going to suffer,” says Anthony Katsur, executive director of the IAB Tech Lab, an advertising technology industry group. “The long tail of the web, the medium and small publishers, are going to be greatly impacted.”

Many people are well aware that the Internet is based on what various providers think they want to see. For marketers and companies, the ability to predict what a user wants creates value. As targeting becomes more precise, advertising can become more relevant to the audience.

However, without third-party cookies, businesses have less of an idea of ​​who their audience is. This can weaken your ability to make money from advertising and make it difficult to publish content for free without forcing users to hand over their emails or phone numbers.

Chrome, which controls 60% of global Internet traffic, is the last of the major browsers to allow third-party cookies. Apple’s Safari and Mozilla’s Firefox have been blocking third-party cookies by default for years. But its market share is much less than that of Google. And while additional ad dollars flowed into Chrome after Safari and Mozilla enabled more privacy protections, there won’t be another browser to market the ads to once Chrome says goodbye to cookies.

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Results of Google’s move

As a result, websites that rely on open Internet advertising may find it difficult to survive. And users may be faced with even more ads that they are less interested in, as sites attempt to compensate for the loss of value by generating greater ad volume.

Carsten Weide, principal analyst at W Media Research, said that Some publishers may face 20% to 40% revenue loss Because the degradation of third-party cookies reduces the effectiveness of ads.

Expiry of third-party cookies may also impair consumer privacy in some aspects, experts argue, by making granular data collection more general. As more companies encourage people to log in to replace cookie-enabled data collection, user profiles will become more detailed and centralized, essentially trading one surveillance paradigm for another.

Part of the change, which Google expects to happen in the second half of 2024, will bring new privacy-preserving technology to give websites alternative ways to serve relevant ads. Google told Yahoo Finance that the company is confident its new tools will allow developers to recover a large portion of the losses that might otherwise have occurred without third-party cookies. One of the new segmentation methods groups people into larger groups based on their web browsing activity. The technology does not identify users individually, but rather groups them with others who are likely to have similar interests.

Responding to criticism that the tools would not work as well with third-party cookies, Google said the privacy initiative was not intended to replace all the features the marketplace has built on top of third-party cookies. Google also highlighted that the privacy initiative is a collaboration with other advertising industry players, regulators and consumer advocates. The company said, “No other browser has even attempted to provide such a diverse set of solutions to the industry, let alone offer public consultation with stakeholders before making changes.”

But changes will come.

Many of the web’s major players will be better equipped to deal with the review. Big tech companies like Meta, Apple, and Amazon have created their own walled gardens, giving them a deep understanding of their users’ desires and behaviors. And Some larger media companies and publishers with large fan bases can rely on subscriptions and app ecosystems, They have built direct relationships with their users through emails and logins, allowing them to generate revenue directly from their audiences and track rich data streams without the use of cookies.

For many others, striking a different balance in user privacy may trigger an extinction event. This is especially true for websites that are already under pressure from falling traffic, economic instability, and the growing threat of AI-led transformation. The notion that advertising dollars are better spent with trillion-dollar tech companies will likely intensify as Cookie’s death creates a void and a struggle for what comes next.

Basic lesson Originally written in English By Hamza Shaaban, Yahoo Finance reporter covering markets and the economy. Follow Hamza on Twitter @hashban,

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