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[Googler, but this is just my own musing] Here's a theoretical question, if all third party tracking cookies were blocked, wouldn't that strengthen Google's pos
by cromwellian 7y ago
[Googler, but this is just my own musing] Here's a theoretical question, if all third party tracking cookies were blocked, wouldn't that strengthen Google's position in the ad market and weaken all of the third party ad networks?
Google gets most of it's revenue (~70%) from it's first party sites, and stuff like AdSense could be made to work without cookies, and given Google's size in the market, people would switch to whatever ad embedding format they required.
But smaller ad networks won't have that power, and don't have huge first party sites either. So in a way, if Google jumps onboard this bandwagon in Chrome, they could be accused of doing it to strengthen their own position, the same way adopting Apple's extension/ad blocking restrictions in Chrome, led people to accuse them they're trying to sabotage ad blockers, instead of trying to reign in a toxic hell stew malware from overly permissive extensions.
- scarface74 7y agoI am not a Googler and have been a long time critic of any business model that is not “I give you money and you give me stuff.” That being said, I defended Google’s choice of implementing ad blocking extensions using an approach similar to Apple’s because I inherently don’t trust random third party extension makers that can intercept all of my web browsing. I also don’t trust VPN providers to protect my privacy but that’s a rant for another day.
- jchw 7y agoI generally agree, though I do trust uBlock Origin with the coveted webrequest blocking API. It has some pretty powerful features that I don’t think could be implemented otherwise, block list limitations aside. I kind of hope Firefox does not get rid of the webrequest blocking API for that reason alone. (Usual disclaimer: Googler here, opinions are my own.)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sbov 7y agoI don't trust random third party extension makers either. That's why I don't go around randomly installing extensions.
- scarface74 7y agoEven if you do trust the extension maker at the time you installed it, how many times have malware makers bought formerly trustworthy extensions? https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/malware-vendors-buy-chrome-extensions-to-send-adware-filled-updates/ https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/01/malwa... I’m very careful on what gets installed on my work Windows laptop and I rarely use my home computer. I’m usually on my iPhone or iPad. There, I install any random app because I know the permission model only allows so much.
- roca 7y agoWhat's AdSense going to switch to that works without cookies? And whatever that is, what makes you think Firefox and other non-Chrome browsers won't block it?