Microsoft's cookie cutter termed threat to Web ads; Advertisers fear Explorer patch hurts third-party servers the most.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)

Advertising Age, July, 2000 by Gilbert, Jennifer; Teinowitz, Ira

Microsoft Corp.'s offer of a beta patch to its Internet Explorer browser that would alert users to cookies sent by third parties is being decried as a threat to Web advertising.

Although few believe Web users will download the patch -- predicting Microsoft eventually will alter Explorer default settings -- Web advertisers are nonetheless concerned that targeting Web ads could become more difficult if consumers use the patch to turn off ad servers' cookies.

"It could be pretty damaging," said Mike Donahue, exec VP of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, suggesting that a number of commonly used measurements of click-throughs could be affected. "If you cut out the cookies of third-party ad servers, the user can't be targeted as...

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