cookie-a tech explanation

Staff Writer/ June 30, 2021/ Datacenter Infrastructure News, Expert Advise and Opinion, Industry News and Expert Advice, Tech Definitions, Technical Explanations

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A cookie is information that a Web site puts on your hard disk so that it can remember something about you at a later time.

By TechTarget Contributor

Updated by: Tekmart Enterprise Support Team

 More technically, it is information for future use that is stored by the server on the client side of a client/server communication.

Typically, a cookie records your preferences when using a particular site. Using the Web’s Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), each request for a Web page is independent of all other requests. For this reason, the Web page server has no memory of what pages it has sent to a user previously or anything about your previous visits.

A cookie is a mechanism that allows the server to store its own information about a user on the user’s own computer. You can view the cookies that have been stored on your hard disk (although the content stored in each cookie may not make much sense to you). The location of the cookies depends on the browser. Internet Explorer stores each cookie as a separate file under a Windows subdirectory. Netscape stores all cookies in a single cookies.txt fle. Opera stores them in a single cookies.dat file.

Cookies are commonly used to rotate the banner ads that a site sends so that it doesn’t keep sending the same ad as it sends you a succession of requested pages. They can also be used to customize pages for you based on your browser type or other information you may have provided the Web site. Web users must agree to let cookies be saved for them, but, in general, it helps Web sites to serve users better.

What Does Persistent Cookie Mean?

A persistent cookie is a data file capable of providing websites with user preferences, settings and information for future visits. Persistent cookies provide convenient and rapid access to familiar objects, which enhances the user experience (UX). A persistent cookie is also known as a stored or permanent cookie.

When users visit a website and set choices or preferences, persistent cookies may be used to remember these options. Persistent cookies can help isolate and identify a specific client and are capable of traversing a user’s path toward a website. They are stored as text files on the hard drive of a computer and usually have expiration dates of one to two years.

Basically, this type of cookie is saved on your computer so when you close it and start it up again, the cookie is still there. Once the expiration date is reached, it is destroyed by the owner.  Persistent cookies track visitors as they move around the website to figure out what people like about the website to help improve the user experience. The most popular persistent cookie is a Google Analytics cookie.

Persistent cookies facilitate setting the following preferences:

• Favorites or internal bookmarks
• User authentication
• Login details
• Menu preferences
• Theme selection, if applicable
• Language preferences

Persistent cookies are also capable of providing the browsing behavior of users.

Non-Persistent cookies are otherwise called as temporary cookies. They are active as long as the browser remains active. They are also called as session based cookies. Persistent cookies are permanent cookies. They are stored as a text file in the hard disk of the computer.