On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 11:39:42 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 10:29:18 -0400, Harry Krause
wrote:

Really? Well, cookies are not that big a deal. Most of the interesting
sites I visit offer up a cookie. I do a spyware sweep once a week to
take care of any of that stuff that would be troublesome.

==============================================

There are different types of cookies. My guess is that Gmail is
trying to set the type that can be read in by another web site (third
party cookie). Since that would enable a type of user web tracking
for participating sites, most spyware tools will try to block it. If
it turns out that this is the case, the advantage to Gmail is that
they could offer targeted advertising based on your interests as
reflected in your web browsing habits. Browse to West Marine for
example, and receive boating advertisements on your Gmail page. More
"Big Brother" stuff unfortunately.

I have the same issue with the Washington Post web site but not the
WSJ or NY Times.

As a long time sci-fi fan, I have read many stories all based around
consumerism and advertising. None of these were written post-Internet
age.

One of the more interesting ones, and I'm relying on memory here, was
about targeted ads and quotas - basically the citizen had to view a
certain number of ads per hour, targeted to personal interests, or be
forced to pay a portion of the day's wages directly to a fund which
was distributed to the products manufacturers.

Gmail anyone? :)

All the best,

Tom
--------------

"What the hell's the deal with this newsgroup...
is there a computer terminal in the day room of
some looney bin somewhere?"

Bilgeman - circa 2004