Hi Reader,

By now, we’re all familiar with web cookies and clicking those little boxes giving our consent to be tracked when visiting virtually any website.

But did you know that cookies will be disappearing and have been for the last 5 or 6 years?

Well, not all cookies, but some pretty important ones.

Ever since the EU passed the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) in 2018, certain types of cookies have been disappearing.

The first thing to understand is that there are two kinds of cookies or tracking that happens:

• First party cookies allow businesses to track you while you’re on their site and store that data to support their needs. It’s private, meaning they don’t necessarily share it.
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• Third party cookies allow large aggregators of data to track you wherever you go online. They use or sell that data to, among other things, target online ads.

First party cookies aren’t going away any time soon, because they’re incredibly valuable to organizations, businesses, and even governments in understanding their audiences.

Third party cookies, however, have been kinda-sorta going extinct for a while.

Almost all major browsers have blocked, or enabled easy blocking of, these cookies over the last several years with one very behemoth exception.

If you guessed Google, you’re spot on.

Google has continually delayed its plans to get rid of cookies year-over-year.

The problem is, what to put in its place so Google doesn’t suddenly lose a huge revenue stream and probably more than just one.

Recently, Google announced, yet again, that it plans to phase out third party cookies in 2024 while it works to develop their replacement.

Here’s why all of this matters to us not just as consumers but as business owners, too:

• As noted, third-party cookies are what make targeted advertising possible, so if you use Google Ads or even ads on social sites, that’s going to impact your budget and marketing strategy.
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• If you rely on aggregated data for your marketing or content strategy, then that may become more difficult and/or imprecise.
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• If you're collecting first party data, which, let's face it, we all are, then you'll want to reexamine your strategy to ensure you're collecting the right data, have an easy way to review it, and have a plan for applying insights you glean on a regular basis.

And, here's something else that might give you some food for thought...

If, like me, you've noticed everyone seems to have an app they're steering you to use, this is because it's a lot easier to collect first party data via an app than a website.

While it’s unclear how Google will replace third-party cookies, the growing movement against large-scale, Internet-wide tracking does mean it may be easier for small businesses to compete with larger companies that typically have deeper marketing pockets.

Only time and Google will tell.
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Until next time,

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