Backed into a corner, DoubleClick wants to reopen the now-closed discussion on the standards draft, as the subcommittee is already rewriting the spec to accommodate Microsoft's finding that the new cookies were not backward compatible. As long as the committee is reconsidering the draft for Microsoft, reasoned DoubleClick, why not reconsider it for our business model. The company had only recently became aware of the extent to which its business would be affected by the specification. We have to do a significant amount of work to maintain the same functionality. That functionality includes constructing a profile of Web users accessing different sites along DoubleClick's client network.
Cookies are small files that serve as unique identifiers for tracking user movements across the Web.
These files, which reside on a user's machine, were intended to reside within a single Web site and serve as markers indicating where a user last visited or, if the site provides shopping, what a user last purchased or put in an electronic shopping basket. Sites such as Wired News use this information to provide a customized experience for each visitor and therefore help ensure return patronage. But cookies can also be used to track users between distinct sites. Such targeting provides a potential bounty for Web advertising agencies such as DoubleClick and NetGravity. By stealthily tracking user movements between sites run by their respective clients on their advertising networks, DoubleClick is able to serve up a unique ad for each user, depending upon a user's interests as expressed via their Web surfing.