Love them or hate them, cookies have dominated the online landscape for more than two decades.
The bits of code are stored in browsers and used to track a person's behavior across the web. They enable targeted advertising and allow websites remembering user information from previous visits.
For companies, using cookies to push out targeted advertising can be critical to finding customers online, but they tend to annoy users who may feel their privacy is invaded or grow tired of clicking on website notices to allow cookies, in accordance with new privacy regulations.
But the cookie is beginning to crumble: Google has been discussing moving away from cookies for years, and on January 4 the company began withdrawing support on its Chrome browser for third-party cookies, a process that's expected to take about a year. Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox browsers have already blocked third-party cookies.
In place of cookies, companies are exploring new ways of getting in front of customers. Digital publications that rely on online advertising are also scrambling to understand how the changes will affect their business models.
At this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, one option being discussed is the "doughnut," or a decentralized cookie, Ad Age reports. A company called Futureverse filed a patent for the technology, which allows users to control the information advertisers and other third parties can access. Google is developing its own alternative called Privacy Sandbox, which blocks some tracking and lets users choose what data to share.
Ad Age also wrote that companies are taking a look at immersive Web3 universes and loyalty programs. Another option is diverting advertising dollars to placing ads within apps such as Uber or on websites for retailers such as Walmart, which can leverage those companies' first-party data about customers' location and purchasing habits.
Brands may also turn to influencer marketing, affiliate revenue programs with publishers, and a renewed focus on contacting customers by email or text message.
Cookies were created in 1994 by Lou Montulli, an engineer at the early web browser Netscape. Initially created to allow websites to remember users--critical for features like online shopping carts--but advertisers soon figured out how to develop third-party cookies, essentially a way to track a user across the web.
"If I had known about the 3rd party cookie exploit in 1994 I probably would have entirely disabled 3rd party cookies or scoped them to a combination of the 1st party and 3rd party so that they could not be exploited in the way that they are today," Montulli said in a Reddit AMA.
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