• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, July 17, 2007

Awareness of cookies--tiny bits of code that online publishers, ad servers, researchers and advertisers place on computer hard drives to identify and track the usage of online users--has increased significantly among consumers over the past two years, but most are still ignorant about the actual role they play in the online industry.

That's the bad news, according to a new study conducted by online marketing research firm InsightExpress--which found that consumers delete cookies for the wrong reasons, believing that it will free valuable hard drive space, remove malicious adware or spyware, or speed up the processing speed of their computers. The good news for industry pros that depend on cookies is that consumers are equally ignorant in their ability to delete cookies.

Although consumers are more aware of cookies today than they were two years ago when InsightExpress conducted its first cookie deletion study, they were less adept at actually removing them.

In 2007, 85% of consumers said they were aware of cookies--up eight percentage points from the 2005 survey. But only 28% of consumers who attempted to delete their cookies during the InsightExpress test were successful in 2007, versus 35% in 2005.

"Nothing in the research that we looked at pointed to a reason why people are less educated about cookies today than they were two years ago," says Drew Lipner, vice president-group director at InsightExpress. "People are more familiar with the term 'cookies,' but it just seems there are less people who actually understand the role of cookies, or know how to delete them."

Lipner said the findings reaffirm the industry's need to educate consumers about the actual role cookies play in online publishing and advertising and the benefits they offer to online users. In fact, InsightExpress originally conducted the first study in 2005 when a number of key industry players--particularly online ad-serving firms and researchers--were growing concerned that misconceptions, negative publicity and automated anti-virus and anti-spyware software were a threat to cookies.

At that time, a subcommittee of the Interactive Advertising Bureau explored a consumer education campaign, but settled on an industry awareness campaign. Two years later, the InsightExpress research suggests that it may be time for the industry to focus once again on consumers.

Without cookies, Lipner says, it would be difficult--if not impossible--for online advertisers to utilize behavioral targeting, or other unique online ad solutions such as sequential messaging, or frequency capping.

Cookies also play an important role in the online user's experience, enabling them to revisit sites without having to re-register, and to store any preferences they have made.

Only one-third of consumers consider cookies "important" to their use of the Internet--about the same share as in 2005.

Cookie Deletion Perceptions Vs. Reality
	2007	2005
Believed They Successfully Deleted Their Cookies	63%	59%
Actually Deleted Their Cookies	28%	35%
Source: InsightExpress Cookie Deletion Study.