• Searchviews, Friday, September 5, 2008 2:18 PM

Noah Mallin weighs in on how the various "privacy modes" of the crop of new browsers may make it harder to track search conversions (both on- and offline) for products with a longer purchase and decision cycle. "In privacy mode, cookies are turned off, so for a longer interaction cycle it can be difficult if not impossible to know that the user who is making the purchase is the same user who clicked through the search ad a month ago," he says.

Of course, the full weight of the impact depends on how many users actually browse while in privacy mode, and whether they do it all the time. "We suspect that in most cases, if it's not porn or pornesque, few people will use privacy mode," Mallin says. "Only the downright paranoid will have it on all the time."

Still, he suggests brainstorming tactics for tracking search conversions regardless of whether users are in privacy browsing mode or not, like using coupon codes, for example.

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