1/ [POLL AT END!] This makes me wonder what the stop-gap will be or where the goalposts will be moved to. @pbannist knows more about this than me, and he seems skeptical that @googlechrome will make its self-imposed 2022 deadline. https://www.adexchanger.com/online-advertising/w3c-ad-tech-members-panicked-about-slow-progress-for-third-party-cookie-alternative/

2/ That then begs the question of what are Chrome's options? I am disregarding the possibility that everything goes as planned and #adtech reimagines itself in under two years to suit the whims of Chrome. Maybe that will happen, but it's not what this thread is about.

3/ OPTION ONE: push the deadline back. Are Chrome users going to know? No. The percentage of Chrome users who know or care what 3rd party cookies are is vanishingly small. No one will notice or care except a few #adtech geeks (such as myself).

4/ OPTION TWO: roll out radically simpler and more achievable mechanisms than what is currently outlined in Privacy Sandbox, TURTLEDOVE and other proposals. Google is looking to solve two basic needs:

5/ The first need is TARGETING. Right ad, right person, right place, right time, etc. A number of options being discussed: FLOCs, TURTLEDOVE, contextual, opt-in, publisher direct, etc. I have said: I don't think ad targeting is Chrome's problem to solve! https://twitter.com/Myles_Younger/status/1225966635141361664

6/ The second need is MEASUREMENT. If MTA, viewthrough attribution, reach/frequency measurement, etc are no longer functional, how do marketers evaluate campaign performance? https://github.com/WICG/conversion-measurement-api

7/ At a high level, I think it's much easier to make digital advertising MEASUREMENT Privacy-friendly than advertising TARGETING. It's also technically not as complex (or at least that's what my gut says) because measurement is a passive, after-the-fact listening exercise.

8/ Also, native browser measurement is something that Safari / @webkit seems to be kind of on board with, thus adding to feasibility and browser-standardization-friendliness: https://webkit.org/blog/8943/privacy-preserving-ad-click-attribution-for-the-web/

9/ So maybe Chrome dials Privacy Sandbox back to just one or two measurement protocols & lets marketers solve for ad targeting. And...targeting is a problem as old as advertising itself; if we're hoping for Google Chrome to solve that for us, well that's kind of pathetic IMHO.

10/ OPTION THREE: leave 3P cookies in place, but in some incrementally "de-fanged" way. This would be the cop-out option. Claim that a change was made when in fact it's just window-dressing to buy time. Mostly a PR stunt.

11/ OPTION FOUR: Just...let 3P cookies die without a magical replacement. Everyone seems to be moving on. It's hard to make a case for 3P cookies any more that isn't self-serving. Wherever genuine UX is impacted, it feels like that can be solved without a "Privacy Sandbox."

12/ If I was on the Chrome team, I would wonder why any of this is my problem. A browser's job is to deliver value to its USER, not for the user's browser to deliver value to a marketer or to a third party. Why is the ad industry entitled to value from a web browser?

13/ I am setting aside the exchange of value between browser, user, and publisher/creator. It's complex, and all roads lead to the question: "Do we want an open web? Is this an idea that will survive in the future?" @pbannist is lots more articulate on that topic than I.

14/ But even some of the proposals like TURTLEDOVE don't seem to be great for publishers. Again, they seem to solve problems for advertisers and media buyers, which don't seem like stakeholders to which web browsers need to hold themselves accountable to. https://twitter.com/Myles_Younger/status/1225966700698292225

15/ So which option will it be? How will @googlechrome meet its self-imposed 2022 deadline for removing 3P cookies?