Google was supposed to eliminate cookies, the controversial technology used by advertisers to track users' online activity, from its Chrome web browser by the end of the year. In what the Wall Street Journal calls a "major reversal," however, the company has decided against the move. Axios says the decision "shocked the ad world." In 2020, Google announced its intention to stop supporting third-party cookies by 2022, but in 2021, that plan was delayed. It ultimately ended up planned for this year. Privacy advocates liked the idea, but advertisers complained that it would force them to spend more on Google's digital ad products. UK regulators launched a probe to determine whether eliminating cookies would hurt competition in digital advertising, and reportedly determined that Google's planned replacement technology was flawed.
In fact, Google has tried several replacements, but neither industry partners nor regulators were ever satisfied with any of them; there were concerns that one, for example, could actually make it easier for advertisers to gather information on users. Instead of eliminating third-party cookies, Google is proposing a prompt asking users to decide whether to block them (which they can already choose to do in their Chrome settings). The setting could then be adjusted at any time, the company says in a blog post. Chrome is the world's most popular web browser, but it is also the only major web browser still supporting cookies. One expert noted last month, "Google can make a change, but like 40% of [Chrome users] have already disabled cookies." (More Google stories.)
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uBlock 
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