The cookie has crumbled and the replacement isn’t out of the oven yet. At least in the short term, ad platforms are turning to Enhanced Conversions.
A Google rep recommended this to me to avoid losing signal after Chrome sunsets them for good this summer.
From Microsoft:
With Enhanced conversions, you can supplement existing conversion measurements by using privacy-safe customer first-party data, such as email and phone number.
Seemed like Google wanted to be a platform for everything you might need to do on the web. (Which meant more vectors for data collection to fuel the revenue generator: ads.)
Now it is starting to replace Big G products with third-party integrations (Search cache, A/B testing).
Is it now Microsoft?
Google Search’s cache links are officially being retired
Google claims it’s less necessary now that internet reliability has improved.
Google is a cloud computing company. One with a robust PR department that likes to make everything a societal positive. One that needs to find profit, fast.
How do you increase cloud capacity without increasing hardware costs? You delete a bunch of stuff taking up space. Like Search cache. Or Universal Analytics data (148 days until deletion).
What will fill this space?
I’m sure some will be whatever paying customers put there. It mostly, AI.