More Time is Needed; Google Delays Cookie Withdraw

More Time is Needed; Google Delays Cookie Withdraw

For those unaware, in January 2020, Google first announced a plan to stop support for third-party cookies, which advertisers use to track users and target them with ads. The company said the plan, which originally had a “two-year” deadline, was to replace third-party cookies with more privacy-conscious technologies.

On Thursday, June 24, 2021 however, Google announced it was pushing back its original timeline of the Privacy Sandbox initiative to kill third-party tracking cookies in Chrome from 2022 to 2023. This will give users, publishers, and digital advertisers more time to plan for more privacy-conscious targeted ads and workarounds. 

The delay comes after Google pledged to give oversight of the cookie changes to the UK’s antitrust watchdog.

In his latest blog post, Vinay Goel, Engineer Director of Google Privacy said, “while there’s considerable progress with this initiative, it’s become clear that more time is needed across the ecosystem to get this right.”

Despite this extension, other browsers such as Safari and Firefox have already implemented some default blocking against third-party tracking cookies. This emphasizes that it’s never too early to start your plan of action for when third-party cookies are removed from Chrome.

End of Third Party Cookies Updated Timeline

Google has now set out an extended timeline for the forthcoming changes. These changes will occur over a three-month period by the end of 2023.

  • Stage one is expected to start in late 2022 and last for a duration of nine months giving publishers, advertisers, and ad tech vendors time to migrate their services to work with new cookieless technologies.
  • The next stage marks the beginning of the end for third-party cookies, expected to start in mid-2023 and finish later that year.

“We must take time to evaluate the new technologies, gather feedback and iterate to ensure they meet our goals for both privacy and performance and give all developers time to follow the best path for privacy,” Goel concluded.

Google and other online ad industry players have been experimenting with new application programming interfaces (APIs), designed to prevent the tracking of individual users while still allowing advertisers to target clusters of people by their interests and measure the effectiveness of their campaigns.

Along the way, Google has promised to partake in transparent discussions and incorporate feedback from external parties including web developers, advertisers, publishers, and regulators. Competition watchdogs have also made it clear to Google that they want to be briefed on the changes. Google responded and offered to give the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority oversight of its plans to roll out technologies from the Privacy Sandbox, including offering the watchdog a 60-day “standstill period” before it introduces any changes.

Reactions from the industry

Google’s initiative to kill third-party cookies in Chrome has been met by resistance from the tech industry, especially from marketers and advertising agencies who are worried that the blanket stop to third-party cookies will hurt the internet economy and start-ups. 

Early during the week of June 24th, the European Union opened an antitrust probe into Google’s advertising practices, including the company’s plans to phase out cookies in Chrome.

Simon Andrews, founder of the mobile marketing consultancy Addictive, said while a large portion of online ad businesses mistrusts Google, the industry needs to reach a consensus around building new privacy-focused solutions that are usable for all the players across the sector.

Have questions about whether or not your cookie game is up to date? Contact the pros at InteractOne to learn more.

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    Magento.com Maintenance Scheduled for March 6-8th

    Magento.com Maintenance Scheduled for March 6-8th

    Just announced from the Magento Commerce department, during the weekend of March 6th through March 8th the Magento.com family of websites will be undergoing routine maintenance.

    During this time the following sites and services will be temporarily unavailable:

    • Magento.com My Account Pages
    • Help Center and Support Tickets
    • Magento U Training & Certification
    • Magento Partner Portal
    • Magento Forums
    • Magento Marketplace

    We recommend that any training, developments or deployment that you have scheduled for these dates be rescheduled or reconsidered until maintenance has been completed.

    Partners will still have access to on-going projects during the maintenance period via accounts.magento.cloud/user.

    During this period, if you or your team requires support for a P1 issue that you would typically resolve by filing a Support Ticket, please contact us via our P1 Hotline : +1-310-945-1310.

    Stay tuned to InteractOne for all the latest Magento news.

    People Skills – Who You Need to Make an e-Commerce Initiative Work with CEO Brian Dwyer

    People Skills – Who You Need to Make an e-Commerce Initiative Work with CEO Brian Dwyer

    Creating a successful eCommerce company starts with the people. It’s vital that you have a cohesive team that can work together and grow together. In this presentation from the 2019 AASA Technology Conference , Brian Dwyer showed attendees how to staff an eCommerce team that will accomplish their goals, short and long term.

    Download the entire powerpoint here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htpOMvlD2OqmRlGCnpA3xsA8Vh2yxsv9/view?usp=sharing

    To learn more about how to optimize your new website, or if you’re in the market for a new eCommerce site, contact us today. In business for over 20 years, our certified Magento developers and marketers know the eCommerce site art and science front-to-back and can help you make the absolute most of your site and your brand.

     

    Let’s Talk Automotive eCommerce Technology with Joe Williams and Scott Thompson

    Let’s Talk Automotive eCommerce Technology with Joe Williams and Scott Thompson

     

     

    At the 2019 Automotive Aftermarket Suppliers Association Technology Conference in Boca Raton, presenters Joe Williams (VP Client Services – InteractOne) and Scott Thompkins (Sr. Product Marketing Manager – Epicor Software, Aftermarket Division) discussed the ever-changing eCommerce world and what goes in to creating a website that will connect with visitors and service their automotive needs.

    Click here to view the full presentation deck: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1htpOMvlD2OqmRlGCnpA3xsA8Vh2yxsv9/view?usp=sharing

    To learn more about how to optimize your new website, or if you’re in the market for a new eCommerce site, contact us today. In business for over 20 years, our certified Magento developers and marketers know the eCommerce site art and science front-to-back and can help you make the absolute most of your site and your brand.

    Building Qualified Online Leads with Limited Resources with Michael Dennis – B2B Marketing Expo in Los Angeles

    Building Qualified Online Leads with Limited Resources with Michael Dennis – B2B Marketing Expo in Los Angeles

     

     

    A lead magnet is an incentive businesses offer potential customers in exchange for their contact information and should accomplish two things. 1) Be valuable enough for your target audience to be willing to exchange their contact information for it. 2) Establish your brand as capable, knowledgeable and cutting edge in the customer’s eyes.

    But is it possible to create this kind of collateral with limited budgets and resources?

    Michael Dennis, Director of Marketing at InteractOne, spoke to a packed crowd at the LA B2B Marketing Expo on October 3rd. His presentation showed content creators how they could utilize limited resources to create lead magnets that will grab the attention of potential clients and ultimately drive more and more hot leads to your business.

    If you’d like to learn how to masterfully market your B2B business, contact us today.  In business for over 20 years, our certified Magento developers and marketers know the eCommerce site art and science front-to-back and can help you make the absolute most of your site and brand. 

     

     

     

     

    NEWS: New Magento 2.3.3 Upgrade to Keep Your Store Secure and Optimized

    NEWS: New Magento 2.3.3 Upgrade to Keep Your Store Secure and Optimized

    Magento has just announced the release of the latest versions of Magento Open Source 2.3.3, 2.2.10 and their new security-only patch (2.3.2-p2). This latest release of Magento Open Source software includes significant performance improvements as well as numerous security enhancements.

    Magento Open Source 2.3.3

    In accordance with the latest European directives ( PSD2 Compliance Support) Magento has rolled out Open Source 2.3.3, which incorporates changes to the native payment integration and introduces PHP 7.3 support. It is Magento’s recommendation that all users upgrade to ensure that your online store remains compliant and maintains the highest level of security available.

    Highlights of Magento Open Source 2.3.3 include:

    -Increased security: More than 100 new security fixes are included in this patch

    -Increased performance: Faster loading times and better overall shopping experience by displaying text while webfonts load in the background and moving non-critical CSS items to the end of the loading queue.  

    -Additionally, Magento has reduced the number of requests going back to the server, which helps increase throughput and decrease resource consumption. With these and other performance enhancements, this new version improves Google PageSpeed Insights score by up to 5 points in some instances.

    -Increased quality: Critical areas of the platform such as Sales, Checkout and Catalogue modules received more than 190 product quality enhancements.

    Elasticsearch 6.0+ Warning”

    Warning when upgrading to Magento v2.3.3: There is a known issue when using Elasticsearch 6.0+ as search engine.
    Product listing pages will not display products beyond the first page when utilizing additional pages from pagination. Luckily, there is an official patch released.

    The only downfall of this is that product listing pages will no longer display the current page range on the navigation bar, it will only display the total count of the products found, for example, before patch: “Items 1-9 of 13” after patch “13 Items”.

    Since Elasticsearch < 6.5 is EOL and MySQL is being deprecated (and will be imminently removed), it is highly recommended to apply this patch is you have short term plan of migrating to Elasticsearch.
    This issue affects all Magento releases for v2.3.3: Open Source, Commerce and Cloud.

    Additional 2.3.3 Product Enhancements

    Yotpo

    Magento officially welcomes Yotpo to the Magento core code as a vendor bundled extension. The marketing platform helps brands drive growth by integrating your visual marketing, referrals, customer reviews and loyalty programs. With this pre-installed integration, merchants can reduce development costs and implementation time by seamlessly activating Yotpo’s UGC solutions, instantly start collecting and displaying high-converting customer content, and stay on top of key performance metrics from within the Magento Commerce Admin panel.

    Admin User Research

    As part of efforts to improve product design and better understand the Admin experience, Magento Open Source now allows for the tracking of user actions and events on the Admin panel. After installation, the first user to sign-in will offered the option to accept or decline participation. Read more about it in the updated User Guide.

    Google Shopping Ads Channel

    The Google Shopping Ads Channel extension is now officially part of the code. With this integration, merchants will now be able to utilize the benefits of this tool without having to go to the Marketplace and download the extension. Learn how Google Shopping ads Channel delivers the power of Google advertising network in one end-to-end solution.

    Security and Performance enhancements

    Dotdigital, Amazon Pay, Klarna, Vertex and Magento Shipping all see multiple improvements to their security and performance.

    Graph QL 

    Improved Graph QL API coverage for PayPal payment integration, Gift Cards and Store Credit functionality. Learn more about Graph QL in our Release Notes.

    For more information regarding the new enhancements, please review the official Magento release notes or visit the Magento Security Center.

    If this all reads as greek to you, you’d like to discuss implementation of this upgrade, or you’re curious about how to make the most out of our your current Magento site, contact us today. In business for over 20 years, our  certified Magento developers know the platform front-to-back and can help you make the absolute most of your eCommerce site.

    NEWS: EU Regulation Impacts Magento Payment Extensions Beginning 9/14/2019

    NEWS: EU Regulation Impacts Magento Payment Extensions Beginning 9/14/2019

    Regulatory Technical Standards (RTS) for the European Union’s Payment Services Directive (PSD2) are scheduled to go into effect on September 14th, 2019.

    If you are using Paypal, Braintree, Authorize.net, Cyberforce or eWay there are updates that must be made prior to September 14th to ensure that the launch of PSD2 does not result in your customer payments being declined.

    The European Union’s revised Payment Services Directive (PSD), also known as PSD2, contains RTS requirements, some that will begin to go into effect as early as September 14th, 2019. This new directive will have a significant compliance impact on most payment processing services when bank transfers and credit cards are being used in sales transactions with  customers in the EU.

    Compliance with PSD2 is mandatory and the responsibility of any Merchant to whom the directive applies. It is the recommendation of InteractOne as well as Magento, that all Merchants review and understand this new directive. More specifically; Strong Customer Authentication (SCA) requirements and updates for 3D Secure 2.0 (3DS).  

    To learn more and to speak with one of our certified Magento specialists, please call us at  (513) 469-7042 or fill out our Contact page and a team member will be in touch with you shortly. 

    InteractOne: Exclusive Alexa Integration Partner

    InteractOne: Exclusive Alexa Integration Partner

    We are proud to announce that InteractOne has been selected by Amazon as a partner for their new Alexa/Magento integration.

    Amazon is now working with Magento merchants to integrate voice into their eCommerce platform’s capabilities. This new integration will allow for Magento merchants to offer their customers a more personalized and streamlined experience the moment they start their Amazon/Alexa shopping journey, including re-orders, wish lists and delivery notifications.

    “This is a great opportunity for us,’ said Brian Dwyer, InteractOne Founder and CEO. ‘We’re thrilled that Amazon has the faith in our team of developers to choose InteractOne as an integration partner for this new and exciting Alexa endeavor.”

    The InteractOne team has begun working with Magento clients on beta testing for this innovative integration. If you are interested in learning more or being a part of this great opportunity, then contact us on our website, or call us at (513) 469-3355 to speak with a team member directly.

    Magento Imagine 2012 – Top Takeaways

    Magento Imagine 2012 – Top Takeaways

    I think everyone who attended would agree that Magento Imagine 2012 was a fantastic event.

    While I did my best to cram my brain with every insightful and useful bit of information, the following items for me were the highlights.

    1. “People, Product, Profit … In that order” – Jim Fitzgibbon
    2. Responsive Design for Magento (one design, any device) – Brendan Falkowski (view presentation)
    3. Yes, Magento can scale – Daniel Potzinger (view presentation)

    Jim Fitzgibbon told us how a culture of “”People, Product, Profit” propelled Four Seasons from being a small chain of hotels with 3 locations in Canada to a international first-class resort empire.  Four Seasons even goes so far as to invite their competition to come interview folks they are forced to layoff. “Do unto others as you would have them do to you” and “trust your employees”…this advise is highly valuable to anyone wishing to keep their top talent around and I’ve seen it work just was well for programmers as I’m sure it does for hotel staff.

    With the proliferation of devices website are now viewed on, responsive design allows sites to simply respond to the display constraints of any device.  So instead of building apps or device specific websites, sites that are built using responsive design work for all devices no matter what the constraint.  Brendan, sign me up to buy your first Responsive Magento theme…I’m sold.

    Daniel Potzinger showed us how a Magento installation leveraging the hosting power of Amazon EC2 can process 5,000 simultaneous requests while maintaining a overall affordable hosting cost….one word…sweet.

    Checkout out the pictures wall

    View from the 2012 NRF Big Show

    View from the 2012 NRF Big Show

    January 16 & 17- we participated in one of the largest retail trade shows in the United States, the National Retail Federation’s “Big Show” in New York.  The show was attended by over 25,000 retail professionals from around the globe, which was a new record for NRF and featured keynote addresses from respected industry professionals, as well as a presentation from President Bill Clinton.

    A few observations from the Expo floor itself:

    • There were a significant number of hardware exhibitors
    • Several, not all, of the major eCommerce platforms were represented
    • Very few eCommerce site developers (as confirmed by attendees)
    • The whole concept of eCommerce site development, seemed out of reach for the small-to-medium size retailers we spoke to.

    It seemed that a number of the middle-range retailers felt that developing a eCommerce platform for their organization was a multi-million dollar endeavor only available to the Walmart’s, Macy’s, and IBM’s of the world.

    Setting your store front up with a Magento eCommerce platform is very cost-effective with options available for the large enterprising company all the way down to a retailer wanting to start out and a range of budget considerations to fit.

    We are pleased to have participated in the National Retail Federation “Big Show” in January 2012 and are looking forward to our participation in the 2012 Internet Retailer Conference and Exhibition in Chicago this June; look for us in booth #905.  We will also participate in the 2012 Annual Summit of Shop.org coming to Denver in September.

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    InteractOne is a proud member of the National Retail Federation and Shop.org.