Digest...

Several alternatives to cookies are currently available, and others are still being developed. The most significant amongst these are Known identifiers, Stable identifiers, and Statistical IDs.

Known Identifiers

Known identifiers are typically associated with some form of personal information, such as a name or email address. They are highly accurate forms of identification because the information stays consistent across multiple devices. Whereas cookies fail to inform websites accurately because they don’t link across devices, Known Identifiers create this connection.

Stable Identifiers

Stable identifiers are usually associated with a particular device or browser, which means they don’t expire. They are anonymous and provide the option for users to opt out of being tracked.

One example of a stable identifier is Apple’s IFA (or IDFA), which stands for “identifier for advertisers.”

This identifier appears as a random, anonymous number that is assigned to a user and their device. It does not track 5h4 user personally, but rather provides aggregate audience data that advertisers can use to target consumers with ads. Similarly, Google created the AdID program that connects between Chrome and Android devices. AdID is still in development and will be accessible to advertisers and ad networks that agree to a basic set of guidelines. Since Chrome is the most-used browser, and Google is a crucial figure in the advertising landscape (earning 41% of digital advertising revenue), Google is in a particularly powerful position to make this change.

Statistical IDs

Statistical IDs, also known as cross-device tracking, allow for a device to be tied to a likely single user through a device attribute. Typical device attributes include device type, operating system, user-agent, fonts, and IP addresses. An advantage of this method is these attributes can be updated over time to match device changes or technology advances.

Startups like Tapad have built complex algorithms that match the location of the personal computer (determined by its IP address) and the location of the other devices (e.g., phone or tablet), which advertisers can see when people share their locations with apps. If marketers can observe enough of one user’s devices in the same place at the same time, they can make a reasonable guess that the devices belong to the same person.

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Not only are digital marketers grappling with new social media sites popping up daily, they also face new challenges to integrate mobile apps, messaging and track data across platforms. CMOs have more to manage than ever before.

Advanced/ Condensed...

The new gTLDs are launching and will start to have an impact in 2014. What's so interesting about the unique opportunities the gTLDs provide is that it is happening during this time of digital transformation. Unlike the .com boom of the 1990s where .com was the only game in town (and no one really knew how to use a domain, nor the potential of the internet), the new gTLDs are launching during a data boom with new sophisticated technologies changing the way marketers think about their strategies as they respond to accelerating consumer adoption in a rapidly changing global marketplace.

For marketers with content, this is a good thing, but for those relying on old SEO strategies with the emphasis on keywords, the cost to drive eyeballs to the site may have just gone up with Hummingbird in charge of quality control. Hummingbird will look for content that is good, dynamic and related to what the searcher is seeking -- like a human researcher might do.

Another big change in digital is in the use of cookies. While cookies have long been a tool marketers relied upon to track consumers, the big players such as Microsoft, Facebook, Google and others are quickly moving away from cookies and into their own technology to track consumers across platforms. This valuable data, of course, comes at a cost to advertisers. While advertisers are used to shelling out money for this data, the impact will be felt by the Ad Tech industry, which has relied heavily upon cookies for data.

The sheer scale and number of new top level domains entering the root of the internet coupled with Hummingbird's search for good content will mean that authentic domains in new TLDs related to their content and business category will likely rank higher in organic search.

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Marketers have until June to get over cookies, a digital advertising executive said earlier this week.

Introduction...

Speaking on a panel at the Programmatic I/O conference in San Francisco, Brian O'Kelley, chief executive of AppNexus, said he thinks that do-not-track or privacy settings enabled in the latest versions of most browsers will destroy the ability to retarget consumers. "If browsers block cookies, a significant amount of money will go away," he said. That's not only for the ad exchanges and platforms like AppNexus; O'Kelley thinks publishers would take a hit, as well. For example, he estimates that over half of Yahoo's premium impressions contain audience targeting characteristics.