If you want to succeed on the internet, you need to know about Google and master its services. From Google Maps to Google Ads, this tech behemoth dominates the whole field.

When it comes to advertising online, Google is crucially important because it controls what most people use to go online. Indeed, 69% of people worldwide use Google Chrome (Source: Statista) and 28.6% of ads globally each year are run through the Mountain View, California – based company (Source: Business Insider).

A recent announcement from the tech giant noting that it will delay kicking third-party tracking cookies out of Chrome has big consequences for online business. Google has vowed to replace Chrome cookies with a new service called Privacy Sandbox but it now says that shift won’t take place until the end of 2023.

As Privacy Engineering Director Vinay Goel recently noted, “more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right.”

The purpose of tracking cookies is to see what users do online so that they can be presented with ads and content tailored to their interests and activities. There have long been worries about whether this infringes user privacy, which is part of what prompted Google to say it was scrapping cookies in January of 2020.

Google’s new Privacy Sandbox program doesn’t track people, but still notes their main categories of interest and lets advertisers zero in on that to sell more effectively. However this is still in development. Critics say Google’s Privacy Sandbox move isn’t really about privacy, it’s just about gaining a full monopoly on online advertising.

If your business advertises online, then Google’s actions in the coming months will have an influence on the rates you’re paying and the returns you’re getting. Further down the road, depending on the details of how Privacy Sandbox works, we could see periods of significant disruption or confusion as Chrome undergoes its changeover to the new format.

Even though Privacy Sandbox reportedly will allow other advertisers to still work through its interface, it will no longer be the Wild West that we currently enjoy online, and those who do business online will be well advised to keep up to date on developments as this unfolds.