Cookie

Small bits of data that a Web page asks a browser to store on a user's computer, either in RAM or on the hard drive. Cookies have become a valuable way to keep track of a visitor's movements on your site, as well as a convenient method to customize content based on a visitor's past preferences. A Cookie, for instance, allows a Web site to "recognize" and "remember" individual visitors by storing files on their browsers with a record of the last visit. Cookies cannot be used to "see" any other data on the user's computer, nor can they determine the user's e-mail address or identity.