Paskalis shared the assessment. “Google’s credibility erodes again, with developers and advertisers questioning its long-term roadmap,” he said. 

Google made its cookie U-turn announcement this week amid a smattering of broader PR challenges: the company’s ongoing battle with the U.S. Justice Department over the company’s monopoly power in online search—and the fallout from a separate antitrust ruling last week that found the company guilty of operating an illegal monopoly in adtech. Some adland insiders have questioned whether the timing was strategic.

Google declined a request for comment.

Privacy advocates

Among the biggest losers will be privacy advocates, who’ve long argued for a shift away from deterministic tools for advertising and supported consent-based frameworks for online tracking. 

“Google’s decision to keep third-party cookies around a bit longer is a step back for privacy and equity,” said Josh Walsh, CEO and cofounder of BranchLab, a privacy-focused healthcare advertising company. “This moment should be a wake-up call to rethink how we define addressability. There are privacy-conscious, data-responsible ways to reach broad and representative audiences that don’t depend on IDs to work. That shift is already underway, and it’s important we don’t lose momentum.”

Consumers  

Consumers, at the end of the day, will lose enhanced privacy protections that Google has been promising for years. 

“For consumers, we could be shifting to a better advertising system faster,” said Ana Milicevic, cofounder at Sparrow Advisers.

Still, some experts are betting that the tide of privacy will rise in both the regulatory sphere and the digital media ecosystem.

“The privacy environment can only get more restrictive,” said Eric Seufert, a leading media strategist, adding that he sees the industry moving away from deterministic IDs. “Even if third-party cookies aren’t going anywhere on Chrome, the marketing ecosystem is evolving away from deterministic identity.”

It’s a sentiment echoed by Raptive’s Bannister. “The third-party cookie’s days,” he said, “are still numbered.”

Update 4/24 at 4:22pm ET: This story has been updated to include a statement from Magnite’s Garrett McGrath.