When trying to go to some sites, a pop up comes up that says "This site requires a feature called a cookie. Would you like to continue?" Then it gives you Always Allow, Block, No. I always click ues, but what exactly is it? Please tell me the origin of the system, name, and what it does. Thank you!
2006-11-27 09:55:17 · 14 answers · asked by Imagine, Its Contagious! 3 in Computers & Internet ➔ Internet
Cookies
Cookies are actually harmless text files that certain web sites will place onto the hard drive of your computer. Your Internet Browser will then load the information into memory while you are visiting their site. The Cookie itself, actually takes up very little space and acts as an identification card for the visiting site. You can compare this to visiting your favorite restaurant where your food server will usually remember certain aspects of how you like your food prepared and what you usually order. This information would obviously be based upon his familiarity of your prior visits. Well Cookies actually act in a similar manner and do not contain viruses as a virus must be executable file. Let us look at some of the ways that Cookies act as an identification card.
Why Sites Use Cookies?
There are numerous reasons why websites would want to use cookies. These range from statistical purposes, such as how many visitors came to the site. This can be further broken down into are they new visitors or actually repeating visitors and how often do they visit. The Website would actually create a unique id for each visitor and store this information into a database.
Cookies can be used to store your personal preferences, referred to as customizations, that you set while navigating their site. For instance, if you visit Yahoo.com, you can sign in to create your very own personal yahoo page where you can customize it according to your news and weather preferences after providing your zip code. You can even change the color of the page layout as well.
Online Shopping sites can use cookies to keep track of items that you add to their shopping carts and quick checkout options. The cookie will keep track of every item that you add to the shopping cart while you continue to browse through different pages or even entirely different sections of their site. Every item you add is stored within the Web site’s database along with a unique ID value that has been assigned to you. Therefore, when you select the check out option, the site automatically knows what items are in your cart by retrieving those selections from its database. This is why sites such as Amazon or eBay will prompt you to enable cookies in case you have disabled them.
Cookies also provide web designers and programmers with a quick and convenient method of keeping their site content fresh and up to date according to the interests of their users. Modern web servers use Cookies for back-end interaction as well, allowing them to securely store any personal data that the user has entered within a site. Therefore, on return visits the user now only has to enter partial information to access their account and purchases can be made quicker as their payment information is on file regarding their previous purchases.
In closing, as Cookies are actually small text files, they really can not damage your computer system or any files on your hard drive. Once again, they cannot transmit viruses as viruses are executable in nature. Some users may just not want to be tracked and this is one of the primary reasons why many people just disable accepting cookies.
2006-11-27 09:58:45 · answer #1 · answered by G 7 · 3⤊ 3⤋
A cookie is a temporary folder were all the sites that you have visited are saved for quick access. How you turn them on is you need to go to Internet options and then from there you can delete your cookies or use them to be able to access a website.
2006-11-27 10:05:02 · answer #2 · answered by the_ninja_master8 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
HTTP cookies, sometimes known as web cookies or just cookies, are parcels of text sent by a server to a web browser and then sent back unchanged by the browser each time it accesses that server. HTTP cookies are used for authenticating, tracking, and maintaining specific information about users, such as site preferences and the contents of their electronic shopping carts. The term "cookie" is derived from "magic cookie," a well-known concept in Unix computing which inspired both the idea and the name of HTTP cookies.
Go on the link below for more information.
2006-11-27 09:57:16 · answer #3 · answered by ╦╩╔╩╦ O.J. ╔╩╦╠═ 6 · 3⤊ 2⤋
When you visit a website, it saves a "cookie" on to your hard drive. A cookie, when you open it, just looks like lines of random text. It is actually a type of code that a web browser recognizes. The main purpose of it is so that you can access websites faster. If a file from a website is already encoded in a text document on your hard drive, it will load much faster. You don't have to allow it, but it may save you time later if you frequently visit a specific website.
2006-11-27 10:03:34 · answer #4 · answered by tekkenrules84 2 · 0⤊ 3⤋
It's like a leach, it hooks onto your browser and allows you to get to that site faster next time. Thing is a lot of cookies slow down use of the browser.
So, every week, when on the internet, click on TOOLS in the task bar, then INTERNET OPTIONS. In the window that comes up click DELETE COOKIES and DELETE FILES.
2006-11-27 10:00:06 · answer #5 · answered by Everyman 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
Actually I have a few that I really do consider real life friends. Unfortunately none of them are within walking distance though.
2016-03-28 22:05:35 · answer #6 · answered by Jane 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Websites you view leave little files on your computer to sort of "remember" you. Some bad websites try and load these off of your computer to steal your info ["cookie grabbers"]... my advice is to find your browser's "Internet Options" tab under "Tools" and from there you can delete them, speeding up your computer and keeping your info safer. Good luck!
2006-11-27 10:04:16 · answer #7 · answered by kae 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋
It tracks infomration about and or your pc so that web sites can customize content for you (such as when you set up a my yahoo page) and track who is using their site etc. For the best definition check out this wikipedia article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_cookie
2006-11-27 09:59:34 · answer #8 · answered by kirknits 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
a cookie actually saves your personal info so when you return to that specific website, it will take you to the page/settings that you previously entered.(its hard to word it but it basically saves your personal info)(not stuff like credit card info or stuff like that)
2006-11-27 09:58:47 · answer #9 · answered by tiffanykb2003 2 · 1⤊ 2⤋
It is a piece of information placed on YOUR pc from websites for identifying variables.....to recognize and remember you ;)
2006-11-27 09:57:37 · answer #10 · answered by MN-Mike 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋