8th March, 2011
Like most people I start the day with a strong coffee and quick run through the latest news in the World today… One article I came across looked at how websites / companies will face restrictions on how they watch what their visitors do! This is important news for any SEO or web marketing dudes; changes will take effect in late-May thanks to the European e-Privacy directive.
Don’t panic if you have a website with Google Analytics or a stats counter installed, it would seem the focus at the moment on behavioural advertising. Behavioural advertising is when a site creates you a unique profile that dictates the type of adverts you see, the advertiser is therefore able to treat each user as an individual, thus able to promote / offer more relevant ads… So, unless you are FaceBook or one of the multi billion pound big players in the world of online advertising I would not worry just yet!
That said these changes are likely to have an impact on the general use and future of cookies. If the conclusion is to better inform visitors that a site stores cookies then be prepared for the re-birth of popup windows and user prompts! I guess this cookie shake up will help boost awareness of how certain sites monitor us… Or maybe (like me sometimes) you will just scroll through a mountain of small print, tick a box and click continue!
If you have any thoughts or feedback on the cookie shake-up or behavioural advertising then please post them below.