Forum Moderators: open
Someone on another forum, who is based in the UK, sent me an email saying that he doesn't get a tracking cookie when he visits www.google.com, but only when he sets preferences. There may be some confusion as to what he expects in his cookie.
In the U.S., you don't even have to do a search to get a cookie if you don't have one. All you have to do is visit www.google.com with cookies enabled. It expires in 2038 and has a unique ID in it.
From this point on, Google only reads the cookie. It doesn't change unless you change your preferences. Even then the unique ID doesn't change. To get a new unique ID, you have to delete your Google cookie, and then visit www.google.com
I would find it very interesting if Google is not using cookies this aggressively outside the U.S. Can some of you folks in Europe check this out for me? There's a slim possibility that Google is using IP delivery of cookies, and going easy on Europe because the EU is sensitive to the issue.
Delete your Google cookie, and then visit www.google.com. Then exit your browser. A brand new cookie that expires in 2038 should be left on your hard disk. (You'll have to reset any preferences you had in order to return to normal.)
As one of the world's leading Google-cookie critics, I need to keep on top of this stuff. Many thanks.
