In this file are stored the records of each visit to a cookie exchange site. Rather than a single file consisting of many cookies, Internet Explorer creates a separate file for each. If an interruption causes you to close your Web browser, a cookie is created and sent to your computer, where it is saved to your hard disk in a special file. When you return to the music store whether it be ten minutes or ten months later the stored information automatically returns you to the same place in your shopping expedition, with the same items you had already marked for purchase. Thus, a cookie can act much like the bookmark that saves your place in a novel.
Cookies can store other types of information as well user preferences, for instance.
My favorite Web search engine, Hotbot , allows the user to change the default settings. Although HotBot normally shows only the first 10 items found in a search, I prefer to view the first 25 items and have changed the settings accordingly. Similar cookies might save your preference for a light blue background color on a Web page or remember whether or not you want frames to be displayed. Cookies can also preserve searchers' usernames, passwords, and other verification data, so that they need not enter the same information each time a site is visited. In fact, the original batch of cookies baked by Netscape was designed to make it easier for users to access their favorite Web pages without having to go through a lengthy process of identification each visit.