The Cookie Craze

Cookies Galore

Cookies appear to be the latest fad. They are showing up everywhere. If fact, cookies are becoming a nuisance and because of their nuisance factor, I’m not going to tell you how to make cookies. Too many people already know how to create them but most don’t seem to understand how to use them wisely.

I’m not complaining about the type of cookies you eat; although, they too may be a problem. I’m complaining about the cookies your computer eats, usually without your knowledge. Your computer then regurgitates the information collected by these simple-minded cookies to the appropriate web site whenever that site is revisited or whenever any site with the correct code requests that information.

I’m not against all cookies. Any cookie that helps me when I return to your web site is a good cookie. However, I still want to know why your site requires me to accept your cookie. If it is only for your benefit then I may not feel like accepting it but if it is also for my benefit then I may not mind.

Some sites need cookies to keep track of what I’m doing. Sites for e-commerce, forums, and even some database-driven sites need to hand out cookies to help me order and navigate their site.

But, I am seeing cookies coming from sites that as far as I can tell only want to collect information while offering no real benefit to me. Perhaps the site offers a cookie to help with their various affiliate programs but why should I care?

If you want me to accept your cookie, tell me what it is for and why I should accept it. What does it do for me?

For those of you who may not know what a cookie is:

Cookies are a small file generated by a web server to be sent to and stored on your computer when you visit that web site. Cookies were designed to allow a site’s information to be customization to the visitor. Cookies can retrieve from and store information on your computer.

Now that you are aware of what a cookie is, do you want to have your computer accept them without your knowledge? At the end of this article are several links that may be of help in setting your browser to reject cookies or at least ask your permission before accepting them. Some firewall and anti-virus programs have cookie detection features but usually your browser setting is the best starting point.

Because I have my browser set to detect cookies and ask my permission before one can be stored on my computer, I have noticed a huge increase in the number of sites passing out cookies. Unfortunately, the number of sites is increasing even when the site doesn’t appear to have a good reason to be doing so.

Some sites aren’t satisfied with trying to give you just one cookie but try to hand out a platter full. I have seen 10 or more requests for a cookie from a site and to make the problem even worse, some are not even from that site. I’m not sure if the site owner is simply trying to wear me down to the point of acceptance or just trying to make sure I get one.

Cookie requests are even showing up in e-mails. So far most appear to be requested by newsletters but what function do they serve accept to annoy those of us who are aware of and control cookie acceptance? Are the newsletter writers just trying to see if I open the newsletter or are they trying to do something more. Why didn’t they ask for my permission; is it a secret?

Also, there could be a problem with using cookies. If your site requires me to accept a cookie, search engine may not be able to index your site. Search engine crawlers and bots do not accept cookies and, therefore, will only see the page that usually says, "You must have cookies enabled to use this site". Not much good as a search engine listing.

So If you feel it is absolutely necessary for you to use cookies, at least make sure they are not needed to access you site. If you have a shopping cart, only require the cookie when an item is placed in the cart - not before.

If you are using cookies in an attempt to improve your site statistics reporting, why not just move to a host that provides better statistics? I have several sites on $5.00 a month hosts that deliver excellent statistics. While my site statistics may not be quite as detailed as what you may be getting from your cookies, I can tell which pages are getting the most requests and which keywords and phrases are being used to find those pages. So, what are you collecting with your cookies that a good statistics program can’t provide?

Please use cookies wisely and don’t use them just because you know how. Also, please be kind enough to tell me why you need me to accept you cookie somewhere other than buried in your Privacy statement.

Some Useful Links

http://www.cookiecentral.com/content.phtml?area=2&id=1

http://wp.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html

http://wp.netscape.com/legal_notices/cookies.html

http://www.microsoft.com/info/cookies.htm