HTTP Archive Report: 61% Of Cookies Enable Third-Party Tracking via @sejournal, @MattGSouthern

HTTP Archive published 12 chapters of its yearly Web Almanac, revealing disparities betwixt mobile and desktop web performance.

The Almanac analyzes information from millions of sites to way trends successful web technologies, show metrics, and idiosyncratic experience.

This year’s Almanac details changes successful exertion adoption patterns that volition interaction businesses and users.

Key Highlights

Mobile Performance Gap

The astir important uncovering centers connected the increasing show spread betwixt desktop and mobile experiences.

With the instauration of Google’s caller Core Web Vital metric, Interaction to Next Paint (INP), the spread has go wider than ever.

“Web show is tied to what devices and networks radical tin afford,” the study notes, highlighting the socioeconomic implications of this increasing divide.

The information shows that portion desktop show remains strong, mobile users—particularly those with lower-end devices—face challenges:

• Desktop sites execute 97% “good” INP scores
• Mobile sites lag astatine 74% “good” INP scores
• Mobile median Total Blocking Time is 18 times higher than desktop

Third-Party Tracking

The study recovered that tracking remains pervasive crossed the web.

“We find that 61% of cookies are acceptable successful a third-party context,” the study states, noting that these cookies tin beryllium utilized for cross-site tracking and targeted advertising.

Key privateness findings include:

• Google’s DoubleClick sets cookies connected 44% of apical websites
• Only 6% of third-party cookies usage partitioning for privateness protection
• 11% of first-party cookies person SameSite acceptable to None, perchance enabling tracking

CMS Market Share

In the contented absorption space, WordPress continues its dominance, with the study stating:

“Of the implicit 16 cardinal mobile sites successful this year’s crawl, WordPress is utilized by 5.7 millions sites for a full of 36% of sites.”

However, among the apical 1,000 most-visited websites, lone 8% usage identifiable CMS platforms, suggesting larger organizations opt for customized solutions.

In the ecommerce sector, WooCommerce leads with 38% marketplace share, followed by Shopify astatine 18%.

The study recovered that “OpenCart is the past of the 362 detected store systems that negociate to unafraid a stock supra 1% of the market.”

PayPal remains astir detected outgo method (3.5% of sites), followed by Apple Pay and Shop Pay.

Performance By Platform

Some platforms markedly improved Core Web Vitals scores implicit the past year.

Squarespace accrued from 33% bully scores successful 2022 to 60% successful 2024, portion others similar Magento and WooCommerce proceed to look show challenges.

The remaining chapters of the Web Almanac are expected to beryllium published successful the coming weeks.

Structured Data Trends

The deprecation of FAQ and HowTo affluent results by Google hasn’t importantly impacted their implementation.

This suggests website owners find worth successful these features beyond search.

Google expanded enactment for structured information types for assorted verticals, including vehicles, courses, and abrogation rentals.

Why This Matters

These findings item that mobile optimization remains a situation for developers and businesses.

HTTP Archive researchers noted successful the report:

“These results item the ongoing request for focused optimization efforts, peculiarly successful mobile experience.

The show spread betwixt devices suggests that galore users, particularly those connected lower-end mobile devices, whitethorn beryllium experiencing a importantly degraded web experience.”

Additionally, arsenic privateness concerns grow, the manufacture faces unit to equilibrium idiosyncratic tracking with privateness protection.

Businesses reliant connected third-party tracking mechanisms whitethorn request to accommodate their selling and analytics strategies accordingly.

The 2024 Web Almanac is disposable connected HTTP Archive’s website; the remaining chapters are expected to beryllium published successful the coming weeks.

Featured Image: BestForBest/Shutterstock