If this is true, this could be a real blow, particularly since this is hitting 3rd party tools. It could put entire companies out of business....
http://ghergich.com/blog/not-provided-slams-paid-search/
JS based third party tracking has been broken for a while now, I am not sure how much this is going to make a difference. KWID string based tracking should still work fine, so it won't hurt PPC affiliates or most direct ecommerce campaigns.
QuoteIt could put entire companies out of business....
I know you know, but have to say it Heather. Google have been doing that for years. They build dependency and then suck them dry.
Never mind the collateral damage.
Its that big question again. When is a company too big? When its bigger than a country? or when it writes all the rules?
Wow, I wonder how the big players like Omniture et all will cope with that.
Guess automated bid management from 3rd party will die then.
I'm no ppc guy, but guess you could tailor custom landing page URL parameters
e.g.
example.com/page/?keyword=this-is-my-keyword&match-type=broad
example.com/page/?keyword=this-is-my-keyword&match-type=exact
Prob' not as good as today, but better than SEO tracking
Yeah, that is typically how it is done these days. Most people substitute a unique identifier instead of the actual keyword and match type in the query string. Then they match that identifier (typically referred to a Key Word ID, or KWID) against statistics like sales for a particular keyword phrase and match type. You could use the same method with affiliate links -- most of the affiliate networks have a way of tracking via identifier string.
Here's a followup article on it:
http://searchengineland.com/aftermath-clarifications-expert-reactions-googles-move-secure-paid-search-queries-188829