Cookies are like Microsoft Word. Everyone claims to be an expert 😀

Let’s get real. Over 15 years, I’ve been witnessing many misconceptions people have about cookies, and I want to write them down in an entertaining way, so that it is understandable for everyone.

Cookies are an essential part of the Internet protocol – WRONG ❌

The browser works perfectly fine without implementing cookie technology at all.

I worked with primitive browsers in ‘smartphones’ (if we can call them smart) back then in 2008, and mostly avoided implementing cookies at all.

The core internet protocols, like HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol), do not require cookies to operate. Browsers (clients) can load and render HTML (Hypertext Markup Language) pages without the need for cookies.

Cookies were invented for tracking – WRONG ❌

I don’t remember that event, but the internet says that cookies were invented in 1994 by Netscape, a popular browser back then.

What I know for sure is that we used cookies to remember simple states of user choices, like preferred language or where they left off on a page.

Online advertisers saw an opportunity to use them as identifiers for anonymous users (those who didn’t log in).

Cookies are a piece of code – NOT REALLY 🙂↔️

I want you to imagine cookies as sticky notes. Same one we use in the office to label tasks on the board.

Cookies are exactly that, short text. They can’t really hold a lot of information. In fact, they are limited to 4kb. Approximately 4000 letters if you like.

All in all, cookies can not execute on themselves.

Incognito mode means ‘browsing without cookies’ – WRONG ❌

Incognito mode destroys cookies after you close the window. But during the sessions, cookies on the web page work just fine. They aren’t associated with cookies from your regular browser, if that makes you feel better.