To those in the digital advertising industry, another twist in the tale of the cookie deprecation was not unexpected. But that Google would seemingly renounce its promise to cut off these third-party identifiers all together, was abrupt to say the least.
Whether advertisers have been diligently planning for the deprecation of cookies since it was first announced in January 2020 or if they have been skeptical it would ever happen, this latest decision seemed, on the surface, like a drastic shift in direction from the tech giant – especially judging by many of the headlines.