What exactly are cookies?

Question

related to the computer, not cooking, what exactly are cookies? what do they do? do we need them?

Answer 1

A cookie is a plain .txt file that sits on your computer in a temporary folder that stores data about a browsing session. If you log into a website it generally sets a cookie to temporarily store your information so you don’t have to log in every time you change a page. It's more commonly referred to as a tracking cookie. A tracking cookie is a cookie that tracks your browsing behaviors.

Basically, they are just little text files used to remember you on the sites you've visited. They are harmless and doesn't affect your computer. The only time you need them is if you have a website remember your password or email address. Other than that, just delete them.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie

Answer 2

it's a little text file that saves settings from a specific website. for example, on yahoo if you check the box that says "keep me logged in for 2 weeks" it creates a cookie that has your username and password in it. they ain't all bad

Answer 3

Just think of them as text files where they jot down your preferences when you enter the site like the themes of your yahoo mail, tabs for your iGoogle, contents of your shopping cart in Amazon.  Through these cookies sites can accurately determine how many people actually visit their site and so that you can log in to your account directly.