What are Cookies?

Of all the weird and wonderful names the computer boffins have given to their technology over the years, cookie must be just about the strangest. We’ve all grown up with cookies, in fact, I have a couple of real live “cookie monsters” in my house right now, but these cookies aren’t the crumbly, chewy, nutty, chocolaty kind, these are computer cookies which are something completely different. Computer cookies provide a type of memory for any websites you may have visited in the past, or are visiting at the moment.

What are Cookies?

A cookie is simply a small piece of information which is sent to your browser every time you visit a website, by the website. It has all of the info about your visit which may come in useful next time you visit the website – language settings, text etc. This data is stored in your browser and accessed each time you visit the same website, saving you loads of hassle by not having to re-do any alternations you made the last time you were there. For example, if you often book your flights online, flying from and to the same destination, the cookies will make sure that the correct information will be on display next time you visit without having to start your search over again – clever huh?

Shopping carts also make use of cookies. If you browse through the DVD’s on a movie site, you can actually add stuff into your shopping cart even if you’re not logged in. The shopping cart remembers the DVD’s as you jump from page to page, they’re saved through the cookies.

To Cookie or Not To Cookie

Many of the modern browsers give you the option of managing your own cookies because some people really don’t like them. This means that you can choose how to manage your cookies, site by site, thus having more control over your individual privacy. You can choose whether or not you trust a site for starters, and only allow those cookies, blocking them from other sites. There are actually many different types of cookies – chocolate, coconut, fruit, cinnamon – only joking, there are permanent cookies that last for more than one session, there are session only cookies which only apply for that session you can even choose which types of cookies to allow as permanent, and which as session only.

You may have noticed that there is a little extra something in the Google Chrome browser options menu – a direct link to the storage settings manager of Adobe Flash Player. This enables you to easily control any local data which is stored by the Adobe Flash Player – also known as “flash cookies”, containing information on any of the flash-based websites or applications which you visit. Not only can you manage browser cookies, you can manage flash cookies too. How flash is that?