Safari's default behavior is to Accept Cookies: 'From visited'. This prevents 3rd party iframes from saving cookies without a workaround. However, Chrome, Firefox, Opera, and IE (with proper P3P) all allow 3rd party iframes to save cookies by DEFAULT.
This leaves us with the choice of either using the workaround, or not providing a consistent experience that users expect.
If Safari worked like every other major browser in this regard-- allowing users to OPT-IN to the stricter cookie policy--then WSJ would be right in nailing Google for working around it.
I think Google did nothing wrong. They worked around a browser's non-standard default behavior, which is something we all do multiple times a day. Only when non-standard behavior is OPT-IN is there willful disregard for the user's intent in employing a work-around.
This leaves us with the choice of either using the workaround, or not providing a consistent experience that users expect.
If Safari worked like every other major browser in this regard-- allowing users to OPT-IN to the stricter cookie policy--then WSJ would be right in nailing Google for working around it.
I think Google did nothing wrong. They worked around a browser's non-standard default behavior, which is something we all do multiple times a day. Only when non-standard behavior is OPT-IN is there willful disregard for the user's intent in employing a work-around.