So many companies are offering free use of their software to at-home workers that it’s not even worth listing them. But location data vendor Unacast has taken a different approach, developing a “social distancing dashboard” that analyzes its consumer tracking data to show much people are reducing their daily travel on a state and county level. The practical value is probably limited but gives you something to explore.
Let’s take a break from coronavirus to remember the other apocalypse: the end of third party cookies. Apple just moved that date forward by announcing that its Safari browser will now block all third party cookies by default. But Safari’s market share is under 4%. https://netmarketshare.com/browser-market-share.aspx Google Chrome, with 68% share, has said it will stop supporting third party cookies next year.
Come to think of it, consumers liking free stuff may be the most normal thing of all. Sure enough, ad verification vendor Integral Ad Science has found that people are eager to swap paid video streaming services for free ones, even if they have to watch ads in return. Also included: a handy diagram that clarifies the often-confused relationships among Over The Top (OTT), Connected TV (CTV) and Smart TV.
The U.S. Department of Justice has formally requested the sale of the Chrome browser among other measures following last August’s guilty verdict in its search advertising antitrust suit (not to be confused with last week’s guilty verdict in the adtech antitrust lawsuit). Google is asking for a much narrower focus on deals to be the default search engine for Apple, Mozilla and others. There will be a three-week hearing on the government’s proposals.