Death of the cookie

Advertisers are starting to complain that Microsoft and Google are launching browsers, where you can surf the web in privacy without leaving any trace of your activity. They claim that it will hurt the targeting opportunities that the web has become so famous for providing.

I agree that the cookie is under threat. But is it really that big a deal?

On the short term, yes. Because it will render all the targeting efforts based around cookies totally useless pretty much over night. But on the longer term this may actually be a very good thing.

The death of the cookie will force media and other content producers and entrepreneurs to focus their efforts much more at specific audiences and within specific niches. Because that will be the easiest way to target going forward. And on top of that I think advertisers will experience a larger degree of ROI, as their ads automatically become more contextually relevant.

Gone will be a lot of the blanket services that present commodity content and don’t really make a positive difference for either people, publishers or advertisers. Is that really so bad?

Vad NU! is a consultancy company owned by Mads Kristensen and specialized in helping clients take advantage of the business opportunities created by new media. Click to learn how I can help you and your company.