14 April 2015
Not only web developers and specialists in web site testing know that cookies are created by many web software products and stored on the user devices.
Advanced users also know where the cookies locate and how to remove them, if it is necessary.
As a Rule, Cookies are not Malicious and Serve For:
- Making online shopping more convenient. By means of cookies the site remembers what goods are interesting to the user and shows him or her these and similar goods in the first place. This feature shouldn’t be overlooked during e-commerce testing.
- Personalizing content suggested to the user. Some sites ask the user what pages he or she wants to visit and what is not interesting for him or her. Later this data are used to provide the user only with the desired information. Verification of this aspect should be included in functional testing of web software.
- Tracking some statistic data for the web software. For example, a web site can track the number of online visitors in different times of day, etc.
But sometimes cookies cause performance or other issues and should be removed.
The path to a cookie depends on the web browser utilized to access the web site or application. Each browser saves cookies in certain paths. One can usually find them in the browser options.
Those, who carry out compatibility testing, localization testing, security testing, etc. of web software, should know how to quickly find necessary cookies on the computer.