The fact that Google is looking for an alternative to 3rd Party HTTP Cookies isn’t such a surprise. The cookie retention curve has been under assault for a very long time. What is a surprise is that it made news.

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Google makes most of it’s money from advertising

Google makes the most money from advertising. It’s a giant arbitrage play between you, your attention, and what advertisers want you to pay attention to. Google may collect a lot of data about many things, but the most important data is about you, and the versions of you expressed through browsers and operating systems. The HTTP cookie was an important source of that information for a long time. It’s been expanding it’s service offering, for a very long time, to obtain more information about you, but most importantly, data that it controls.

The HTTP Cookie has been under assault since at least 2000

A segment of the population was told to delete their cookies when they came online in 2000-2003, and that segment continues to delete their cookies. Then Apple got rid of third party cookies from Safari in 2003. Nobody really cared because their market penetration was so low. Then the iPhone and iPad started changing that. And then Mozilla, with 25% market share, started in on the same theme. Shill and advocacy organizations alike shilled and advocated far too late in the game. The trend against the third party HTTP cookie has been in place for at least 13 years. That’s pretty much deep time in technology terms.

Whose control is it anyway?

Google now has an OS. They have their own browser. They have a large proportion of the population on Gmail/G+. Mozilla is building an OS. They have their own browser. They have a smaller proportion of the population on Persona. Facebook has a massive platform. They have third party tracking in place wherever there’s a Like or Share button. And they have 80%+ market penetration. It’s very clear that they’re in control of a lot of data. They appear to be firmly in control.

Conclusion

It’s no surprise that the 3rd party HTTP cookie is going away, and that companies with long outlooks have been planning for it. Why is it making news now? And, Why isn’t the consumer more in control of the situation?