Invention & Types Of Internet Cookies
Lou Montulli was a 24-year old programmer who invented the internet cookie in 1994 when he was working for the brand-new Netscape. Netscape was trying to help web sites become viable commercial enterprises. A cookie is a small data file that certain websites write to your hard drive when you visit them. Cookies is not harmful. They are merely short text strings, that often make browsing more comfortable for the everyday user. They also allow a server to recall any customized information you have set.
There are many uses of internet cookies, for example, collecting information about the pages you view and your activities on the site enabling the site to recognize you. Examples would be remembering your user ID, making an online shopping cart for your interests, and keeping track of your preferences if you revisit the website. An example of a site that uses internet cookies is Amazon. Customizing your browsing experience, and delivering ads targeted to you are a few more. The cookie transmits this information back to the website's computer (or server). You can also set your web browser to warn you about attempts to place cookies on your computer or to limit the type of cookies you allow. These are minimal things that cookies can and will do for you.
There are two types of cookies, single and multi-session cookies. Single session cookies can help with navigation on the internet, erase data after the browser is deleted, and is used for the smoothest navigation experience on sites. Multi-session cookies are used for other things. They are the cookies that record data every time you visit a website. Another use of multi-session internet cookies is the storage of information on a hard drive, until you delete it manually. If not deleted manually it can take many months or up to a couple years for them to delete themselves. There are many pros and cons to using internet cookies.
The first pro is convenience. Cookies remember what sites you visit but also remember the information, what you looked at on that site and even what you’ve entered into your cart. Cookies are the things that give you the ability to auto fill your address, name, credit card and email.
Another pro is personalization. Cookies are very easy to personalize. Amazon and other sites use cookies to give preferences to what is relevant to the user. For example what is in their cart and similar things they've looked at appear in your shopping cart. The last pro is effective advertising. Internet marketing companies use cookies to post advertisements that are relevant to you, cookies help run marketing campaigns.
Although there are many pros there are also many cons. One con of cookies is that cookies enable all web browsers to keep track of what you have visited on the browser. This means that third-party companies can access the information through cookies different meaning they can see what you've looked at for research and data. Another con is security. There have been many holes found in cookies. What does this mean you may ask? This means that web hackers can reach your personal emails, passwords, and credit card information.
