Is Alphabet Stock a Buy for 2024?
2 min read
Many tech stocks went up during 2023 thanks to the rise of artificial intelligence (AI). Among them was Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOG) (NASDAQ: GOOGL), which uses AI across a number of products, including its ubiquitous Google search engine.
Alphabet’s fortunes switched from its stock hitting a 52-week low of $84.86 last January, to a 52-week high of $142.68 by the day after Christmas. So what’s in store for 2024?
Well, the new year is already shaping up to be an interesting one for the company. Alphabet faces some potentially major upheavals in 2024, and these factors can affect the decision to invest in Alphabet. So it’s prudent to review these events to determine if Alphabet is a stock to buy in the new year.
Alphabet’s “Chrome-ageddon”
One key factor that could affect Alphabet shares is the company’s decision to phase out third-party cookies from its popular Chrome web browser. These cookies are used by advertisers to target you with digital ads based on your activities on the internet, such as the websites you visited.
This online tracking raised consumer privacy concerns. So Alphabet decided to move away from third-party cookies, which would eliminate the current targeting mechanism advertisers rely on.
It’s such a big deal, many in the advertising industry call this end to third-party cookies “Chrome-ageddon” because Chrome is the world’s top-ranked web browser, commanding about a 64% market share. Apple‘s Safari browser is in second place, with a 20% share.
Alphabet kicks off a months-long process of gradually phasing out third-party cookies in the first quarter of 2024. The company is transitioning Chrome to the Privacy Sandbox, a system Google developed.
The Privacy Sandbox limits sharing information about your online activity with third parties. Instead, the data stays on the device you’re using, and is accessed by websites or apps you visit to serve you ads targeted to your interests. In this way, Privacy Sandbox tries to balance consumer and advertiser needs.
