Don't Let The Cookies Crumble

So often, cookies are seen by many ordinary Internet users as bad things; uninvited software guests that nestle into hard to find crevices to get up to all sorts of whatever bad things their imagination let them. This is probably because the people building websites and distributing the cookies never took the time to tell the users what they were really for. So, hey-ho, better late than never.

The cookie isn't a subversive lump of malware, rather a helper and a time saving device for the user that visits a website on a regular basis. As soon as you point your browser at that useful website from which your little cookie originally came, it sits up, waves and says hello to its originator. At that point, the website recognises the little fellow, and can then tailor the site for you.

For example, seeing the introductory video automatically play the first time you visit the homepage is probably a good thing, but you don't need to see it on your twenty-third visit. A cookie can sort this out for you.

Websites that perform some kind of transaction for you would be very hard to use without cookies. Online shopping would be especially tedious - just imagine how difficult it would be if you had to purchase each item individually without a shopping basket.

So, there we have it; ignorance borne out of inadequate information has much maligned a little device whose only crime was in just trying to help.