UK Firm Launches Cookie-Free Alternative to Google

In the UK, a new DIY survey platform called Usurv is to offer a similar service to Google Consumer Surveys, but without the use of cookies to infer demographic information about respondents.

Google's product combines DIY surveys with access to targeted respondents, with users charged a fixed fee per response. According to Usurv's founders - research veteran Guy Potter and Internet entrepreneur Martin Bysh - GCS remains unavailable in the UK and Europe, reportedly because the search giant's cookie-based tracking system does not comply with recently introduced European privacy laws.

Initially available in the UK, Usurv's surveys do not rely on cookies to deduce demographic information about survey respondents: instead, the platform collects anonymous subscription data from its partner sites, and this is occasionally supplemented with demographic questions asked at the start of a survey.

While the new platform has been developed to target a similar market to GCS, the pair claim they offer a 'more rounded' service, with extra features such as the ability to ask open-ended questions, schedule surveys, and continuously track opinion. Questionnaires typically take under 30 seconds to complete and do not require participants to leave the web page they are on to complete them.

Potter (pictured), who has more than twenty years' MR experience gained in the UK, Italy and Asia Pacific, previously led Asia Market Intelligence's online division and set up a research agency in Manila.

Commenting on the launch, he said: 'Building up a demographic profile from online behaviour in the way GCS does can sometimes be hit and miss. By contrast, we're very sure of our data - which comes directly from the respondents, and with their permission. Our partners have also generated a strong level of trust from their subscribers, which means visitors are more willing to look at our surveys.'

Web site: www.usurv.com .