And So Begins The Beginning Of The End Of Third-Party Cookies In Chrome

New Year’s resolutions were made to be broken.

But on Jan. 4 – today! – after multiple delays and deadline extensions, Google finally disabled third-party cookies for 1% of randomly selected Chrome users globally, which is the first step in its plan to fully phase out third-party cookies in its browser by the end of this year.

There are roughly 3.22 billion Chrome users worldwide, so 1% equates to roughly 32 million people.

Specifically, Google released a new feature called Tracking Protection that, when enabled, automatically cuts off a website’s access to third-party cookies.

Google has said it’s purposely moving slowly so advertisers, publishers and tech vendors have time, as Anthony Chavez, VP of product management for the Privacy Sandbox, put it, to “test their readiness for a web without third-party cookies.”

That’s the way the cookie … etc.

Regardless of how ready companies are from a practical perspective, however, I think there’s no doubt they’re ready emotionally.

Safari and Firefox have both already blocked third-party cookies by default for years, and we’ve been talking about eventual third-party cookie deprecation in Chrome since January 2020 – as in, before the pandemic even began.

The headline on AdExchanger’s first story about Google’s announcement, published on Jan. 14, 2020, was “Google Chrome Will Drop Third-Party Cookies In 2 Years.”

(Lol.)

In the years since, AdExchanger has published hundreds of stories analyzing the implications of the end of third-party cookies in Chrome from every possible angle.

So, instead of opining seriously on what Google’s move means for advertisers or spilling yet more ink deliberating on the cookieless future, let’s get goofy.

These are some funny, nerdy-as-all-get-out jokes, memes and Privacy Sandbox-related references I’ve collected over the past few years. Let me share them with you, old-school BuzzFeed-listicle style.

So true

Ad tech companies whenever Chrome does anything: pic.twitter.com/9QQXJWN0tj

— Ratko Vidakovic (@ratko) October 24, 2023

Remember the bird names?

All ad tech journalists begrudge Google for later depriving us of bird-related wordplay.

(And we do see you, Michael Kleber.)

Tough cookie

Also, we feel you, Paul Bannister.

You better get some gloves.

— ßreaking ßrad (@BradAT) April 8, 2022

Bye, bye, birdies

FLoC became Topics, and FLEDGE became PAAPI. (If that sentence makes sense to you, may god be with you.)

Another Paul Bannister (@pbannist) banger:

Today’s pangram is eerily prescient pic.twitter.com/CMokRyqltr

— Paul Bannister (@pbannist) June 25, 2021

Herding cats

If you take away our bird names, Google, this is what you leave us with.

Has this privacy sandbox joke been made yet? pic.twitter.com/dWNmlVJ4s4

— The Last Party Cookie 🎉🍪 (@humanpropensity) August 30, 2021

H/t to Sara Camden and Shiv Gupta in the responses for their cat-litter-themed Privacy Sandbox API name proposals.

CLUMP (Collective Learning Under Misdirected Pretenses) 😺
LITR (Learning Independently in Trusted Ranges) 😹

Ready or not

Trying to find the perfect gif for how I feel when reading the Privacy Sandbox docs. This is the closest. Reply with your #sandboxgif pic.twitter.com/Il3Ayc9XN0

— Ari Paparo (@aripap) December 11, 2023

Working hard on the workarounds

Hate to be cynical, but … yeah.

“Advertising without Cookies” – new cartoon and post on privacy and the end of third-party cookies https://t.co/eNRSlbS2JH #marketing #cartoon #marketoon pic.twitter.com/hN0PSIWyXB

— Tom Fishburne (@tomfishburne) April 11, 2021

Sorry, Cookie Monster

All things considered, Sid deserves the last word here. (Sid is Cookie Monster’s real name, by the way. He confirmed it in a Wired Autocomplete Interview in 2017. Skip to 17:19 in the video if you need proof.)