How Cookie Alternatives From Microsoft and Google Stack Up

Both Microsoft and Google are eyeing their own technologies to track people's digital behaviors -- the sites they visit, the apps they use, the videos they watch, etc. How might the longtime rivals' odds stack up?

Microsoft's cookie replacement would trace users across Microsoft-owned devices and services and target ads within those environments. Details on Google's plans are scarce, but it would likely retain the current cookie's functionality and apply it to both the desktop and mobile web as well as mobile apps to track a single anonymized user across the various devices.