The origin of the word cookie is obviously associated with the process, or result, of cooking: Except in cyberspace. Or, maybe there really is something cooking when a site sets a cookie at your PC. In the Web world-at-large there are more and more cookies floating about and I, personally, am getting livid about it. And when I get mad about something I usually write about it!

I am not usually a conspiracy buff (except for . . .) but there is something strange going on in the world of cookies, and it starts with the premise that I am afraid a good proportion of users of the Internet are unaware of their existence. So, very quickly for those who are cookie-challenged among our analog readers, a cookie is a tag left in your computer by a site you might visit. They have two characteristics, apart from a crazy ID system, and those are that the cookie says who it can be read by and also sets an expiry date.

Most of the cookies that URLs are trying to set these days seem to have expiry dates sometime in 1999 (obviously by a lot of people who don't know whether they have a Millennium 2000 problem) and the vast majority are set to be read by the organization that set them. The distinction between organization and site is important because there are all sorts of places out there that seem to have made marketing agreements to allow cookies to be set on behalf of sponsors or advertisers.

Every browser that I know of has a means -- in preferences -- to show a window when there is an attempt to set a cookie, which you can then accept or cancel. I don't accept any, under any circumstance.

Why Abuse DisneyWorld?

I dearly love Disney; I am not convinced all their products are that well-thought out for their kid audience, but for some of us "Never Grow Up" kids Disney is close to nirvana. But Disney is about making money and it may "all have started with a mouse" but it is definitely the cheese that has won. The Disney World site is just about the worst commercial page I have visited in respect of cookies. They come at you with machine-gun speed and it is actually difficult to navigate because you don't have time to get to a nav. point before the next cookie arrives! Presumably in the interest of doing business, they do eventually give up on a page, only to start again when you get into another area.

The marketers will tell you that cookies are all about identifying what you, the consumer, is doing or wants to do. Obviously, if you often visit a site, like DWorld, you have something of an interest in going there, or doing something for someone else, or buying something. It is of great use to the company, or an advertiser, to track those interests and to use the information to target individual consumers or modify their offerings to better suit the audience.

There is also a reverse payoff for the people who sell advertising because they can persuade the people with the checkbooks that the site is being visited to such-and-such a degree and that they need to spend money there. So, the more cookies you can get set the more people you can make happy. Except me.

I refuse, for example, to use Microsoft's travel service. Apart from missing some very basic items in the profile/habits of frequent travelers they will also not allow you to enter -- even with a valid user name and password -- without accepting cookies. I presume that also means that you can't gain entry from a second machine; and none of us have two computers, do we? So, staying by my word -- just as I have refused to shop at Sears since 1983 -- they don't get my business. The practice certainly isn't needed to protect them or to protect you. When you go to a site like Travelocity, or Amazon, or any of the other big, successful, commercials sites the security is sufficient without having to identify the computer. So why does Microsoft do it? I believe it is just nosiness.

Turning Off The Oven

To give the left click on my mouse a bit of a rest I believe there should be a preference in browsers that actually lets you always refuse cookies. And then I'd like a counter to tell me how often I avoided them. If you've already been exposed to the deadly little things there is shareware available on the Web that can be used to clean out the folder: I've never had to do it so I can't recommend one program over another or even promise it's not a scam to wipe your hard drive!

But here, for me, is the scary part. if you use a book to get acquainted with a browser check the Contents or Index for "Cookies." You won't find a mention of them in some. "Netscape Navigator 3 Starter Kit" from Que (ISBN 0-7897-1181-8, $39.99) is a popular start-up book and includes a non-exportable version of Navigator Gold. The word cookies does not appear in the text. Is this a dire plot to keep cookies out of the eyes of the average Internet-Joe? I really think it might be.

How does this concern Analog Avenue? Well, obviously, you are a user of the Web otherwise you couldn't be reading this (unless you happen to be the gentleman who is desperately trying to read my laptop screen at Denver Airport) and you must also be an Analog person: isn't humanity always? I am not a "power" user of Cyberspace, by any means, but I am online for large proportions of the working day and I visit a lot of analog sites. Which ones employ cookies?

I have been, for the most part, pleasantly surprised. Only two sites, to my recollection, use cookies: Analog Devices hits you with one when you go into a particular page (and I don't think I have ever gone onto their site through the front door) but it is only one attempt and they don't lose their cool with you.

However, go visit National and your mouse will be real busy. It is not as bad as DWorld but it really is getting pretty close. Highly intrusive, terribly unfriendly and demanding. Maybe the real people at National don't know this is being done? Sorry, you guys, I am nominating you for the most crass use of cookies at an analog EE site. Your defense will be published, but the very best thing you could do is to get back onto Santa's "Nice" list by talking to some IT folks about turning the cookie cutter factory off-line.

By: Paul McGoldrick
Sr. Technology Editor, EDTN

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