Google has delayed a plan to end support for third-party cookies in its Chrome browser by nearly two years, after mounting pressure over an idea that strikes at one of the foundations of today’s online advertising industry.
The search engine said it was holding off to allow more time for discussion with regulators and companies involved in digital advertising, and to “avoid jeopardising the business models of many web publishers which support freely available content”.
The respite was greeted with relief in the digital advertising world, which has faced uncertainty with the looming end of one of its main ways of targeting online messages. Shares in Trade Desk, a US company that has been trying to win backing for an alternative way of targeting ads, jumped 17 per cent on the news, while French ad tech company Criteo rose 11 per cent. The delay will give the online advertising industry longer to refine alternatives to cookies, said Youssef Squali, an analyst at Truist.