Google Introduces Unified Cookie

Google wants to do away with traditional cookies, and we’re finally getting an understanding of how that might happen. Google has developed a new type of technology that allows advertisers to target people who’ve visited their websites with ads on tablets and smartphones – while bridging the desktop and mobile gap. It works through something called a “hashed tag,” which allows advertisers to keep track of that individual person anonymously, without storing their email and phone data, an important caveat when consumers want continued emphasis on privacy. Once tagged, the advertiser can show ads to that tagged individual anywhere on Google’s network of third party sites and apps. It’s important to note that this works through tagging someone and targeting the tag, not targeting the person individually via a network of email addresses like Facebook has on file. Right now, Google is looking for advertisers that operate sites with registered user bases of over 100,000 or more to test the new hashed tags – but expect to see the technology in a fully fleshed version in the near future.