Browser cookies are known as "cookies" because they resemble a popular baked treat. The term was coined by Lou Montulli, a programmer at Netscape Communications, in 1994. Montulli used the term "cookie" to describe the small packets of data sent by websites and stored on a user's computer to remember information. The analogy was inspired by the idea of a fortune cookie, where a message is stored inside a small package. Like cookies store information for later consumption, browser cookies store data that websites can retrieve and use during subsequent visits.