PROGRAMMING FOR THE INTERNET
Cookies: A Web Marketer's Treat
Cookies are software markers that identify Internet users to a server. Cookies extend the functionality of the browser by providing Internet users unique identifications to the host server. Quite simply, cookies are treats for marketers. They enable marketers to collect data about the cookie-holder's activity on their web sites and then to analyze the information for modifying web site content. Web ad revenues in 1995 totaled $43 million. In 1996, ad revenues are right on target with expectations between $350 and $400 million, potentially becoming a $5 billion market by the year 2000. Many believe effective use of cookies is vital to the future success of on-line advertising. Visit these sites to see cookies in action: an on-line publication Wired and one of the most popular search engines Altavista.
For example, a cookie sent to your browser by a content provider will tell them when you visited their site and what information (pages) you accessed. This valuable research could not be collected without software like cookies. Additionally, the cookie's information about you will enable the web server to transmit advertising material appropriate to your tastes. So cookies allow for virtual one-to-one targeted marketing efforts.
As servers get faster and content providers seek to track the individuals that visit their sites, this trend in delivering "tags" to individual Internet users will only increase. But what about privacy in this information web? More importantly, how much input can the cyborg accept? Does the cyborg need to be tracked? If so, how will outside forces limit the cyborg's ability to choose among the myriad of Internet alternatives?
For more information on cookies, visit Vanderbilt University's research program on marketing via computers at Project 2000.
Demographics of Internet Users
