Google Shares Cookies?

painperdu · 04-13-2005, 06:52 AM

I have my Firefox cookies manager on alert whenever a new cookie tries to be placed on my browser.

Many times when I search on google I get a cookie alert for the top listed search result, even though I haven't visited that page!

Does anyone else get this? I thought that the only way to recieve a cookie was to actually visit the site that was issuing the cookie?

Is google doing something funny?

longcall911 · 04-13-2005, 07:34 PM

I'm seeing the same, but for only some searches. The cookie is identified as an asp session ID. And of course, only some sites use asp for the default page.

How or why it is being planted without an actual visit to the site certainly has my curiosity up too.

I just searched for NY Rangers and the team site is listed at #1. A cookie was immediately planted with the asp session ID. So I went to the site I typed in default.asp after the domain name. The home page reloaded so the page exists. (guess I could have done a G site command)

I wonder if G is pre-fetching the #1 site in all cases. If so, it would make sense that fetching a site with an asp home page would cause it to plant the session cookie.