In a frankly unsurprising change of course, Google has once again delayed the end of third-party cookies in its Chrome browser.
The decision arrives two days before the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will release its joint quarterly report on the matter with Google.
The tech giant blames feedback from the industry, regulators and developers for the latest delay, following other setbacks that have plagued the project.
Google delays third-party cookie phase-out, again
The announcement, posted on the company’s Privacy Sandbox website, states: “It’s also critical that the CMA has sufficient time to review all evidence including results from industry tests, which the CMA has asked market participants to provide by the end of June.”
Consequently, the deprecation of third-party cookies in the browser, which was originally slated for a launch in the second half of Q4 2024, has been postponed.
Although the company has not yet been given a new deadline, this marks the third time that Google has pushed back its target, which had initially been set in January 2020 with a two-year time frame. The vague hope for a launch in 2025 leaves plenty of uncertainty surrounding the deprecation of third-party cookies, and at this point, the industry is well-primed for yet another setback.
The project on the whole has been met with an unenthused response, and the CMA has previously raised concerns about Google’s replacement APIs on competition.
Nonetheless, the online ads industry finds itself yet again in limbo as it prepares for a world without third-party cookies, only for the whole plan to come grinding to a halt.
Google commented: “Assuming we can reach an agreement, we envision proceeding with third-party cookie deprecation starting early next year.”