Verizon Media is throwing its hat into the ring of post-cookie advertising identifiers once more by launching a second solution that can target, buy and measure audiences without linking a user to a unique, one-to-one identifier.

Called Next-Gen Solutions, the company’s contextual targeting solution provides targeted advertising without needing a user to sign into a service. The solution uses context, not just from the web page itself, but from the visit’s timestamp, area weather, location and device types. The data is fed into a machine-learning algorithm which can then serve up ads by checking the access time against context, such as a user’s approximate location and the area’s weather to serve up ads.

“As the industry continues to shift, the divide is now sharper between those that have first-party data and those that do not,” said Iván Markman, chief business officer, Verizon Media, in a statement. “We are extending our ability to better serve our customers, offering solutions for both identity-led and identity-less opportunities,” he said.

Verizon’s rollout comes as the ad tech industry races for a new solution to replace the third-party cookie, a small file saved onto a user’s web browser that advertisers can access to build an ad profile for targeting. Major web browsers have recently announced they would end support of the technology, setting off an industry-wide scramble for a suitable replacement.

The media and telecommunications giant is also rolling out three audience and measurement tools: Next-Gen Audiences are groups of targetable audiences built by extracting analyses from the existing first-party data Verizon receives from its users; Next-Gen Buying allows for bidding between both its addressable and identity-free audiences; and Next-Gen Measurement helps advertisers and marketers measure reach, audiences and return on ad spend between its solutions. Verizon says its Audiences and Buying tools will be available in the the second quarter, with Measurement coming in 2021.

Verizon's first solution, ConnectID, is a one-to-one ad targeting solution that uses sign-ins from across its empire of Verizon-owned online properties, from TechCrunch to Yahoo Sports. When a user signs into a Verizon property, that user’s identity is hashed, and that hashed information is passed across the bidstream to advertisers. To actually reach those audiences, brands and advertisers must also gain consent from the same users. The solution runs exclusively through Verizon’s own DSP and SSP to ensure privacy.