Ratko Vidakovic

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

You know who was right all along about all of this Chrome cookie drama? Jeff Green.

He publicly and repeatedly stated that Google would never deprecate third-party cookies. That it would be a gigantic strategic mistake.

I thought it was wishful thinking, but he was right.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

It looks like Chrome has lost ~zero market share by not deprecating third-party cookies like other browsers.

There was a tiny stumble in 2023 when, ironically, a Privacy Sandbox feature (Topics) came out and paulg called it spyware, but its share today is higher than ever.

[Trey Titone @TreyTitone]

Stop and think about the astronomical amount of time, money, and resources wasted with the Privacy Sandbox in the last 5 years.

I am so sorry for whoever developed products using those ridiculous APIs.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

@SimonJHarris I agree. Having no intention to ever deprecate cookies, while deliberately throwing the whole industry into chaos, would be up there as one of the most diabolical corporate moves ever. Seems more likely that all the legal headaches piled up and just made it impossible.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

How much waste and damage did Google cause with its cookie announcements over the past five years? How much market cap was destroyed? How many jobs lost? How many resources were reallocated towards cookieless solutions? How many product decisions influenced?

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Oracle shuttered its entire ads business in large part because of Google's cookie deprecation narrative. That rumble you hear is Oracle's legal team assembling.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

In June 2019 at AdMonsters Ops, Google's Jason Bigler told the crowd, “The death of the cookie has been greatly exaggerated.”

I wonder why he said that. How much did he know about Google's long-term intentions?

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Let me get this straight. Google sent the entire adtech industry on a wild goose chase for the last five years?

That's kind of diabolical.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Unpublished reader poll from late 2023

[Erez 🇺🇸 #MakeTaboosTabooAgain 'Holding the Line' @elevin11]

INSPIRING MORE HONESTY IN ADTECH (or at least trying to)

If you would like to see the AdTech industry (and world) improve, and think it would benefit from even just a bit more honesty, I encourage you to read this article. And even if you don't necessarily agree with every word in it, and even if you're worried about signaling support for it, consider liking the LI post simply as a signal of your support for honesty.

The only way we can create the changes we want to see is by closing some of the gaps between what we think and what we say. I hope this piece helps us move a bit closer in that direction.

https://t.co/3qGj7HVAPd

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

@joe_zappa Good call. My thoughts first went to self-serve tools like DanAds and BuySellAds but I completely blanked on FatTail, Operative, etc.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Hi @adsliaison - are advertisers able to opt out of Google Search Partners entirely on Performance Max campaigns?

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

@mrjordanbentley Let’s see Paul Allen’s campaign

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

I watched Silence Of The Lambs for the first time last night. Incredible movie. Every time they said "quid pro quo" I thought about Jeff Green explaining the value exchange of the internet.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Auction duplication feels symptomatic of a deeper problem with the RTB ecosystem. The closest analogy is insulin resistance in the human body. Chronically elevated insulin levels cause cells to become less responsive to insulin, which causes the body to produce more insulin.

[AdProfs @adprofs]

Results from the last question, "How would you characterize the practice of bid request duplication by SSPs?"

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

@Myles_Younger Declining ad prices create an arbitrage opportunity that tends to be exploited by low-quality advertisers.

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

You can tell where we are in the economic cycle based on ad quality. These feel like 2008-2009.

[Lara O'Reilly @larakiara]

I'm not entirely sure why, but over the past few weeks I've been amassing a collection of all the things crappy internet ads have suggested will COMPLETELY CLEAR MY BOWELS. Starting with...iced eggs?

[Nikita Bier @nikitabier]

@gannonbreslin How does a newsletter writer keep their spouse attracted to them?

[Ratko Vidakovic @ratko]

Ad tech companies whenever Chrome does anything: