And cookies for all

This video stumbled through our Twitter stream today (via @michelemarzan), and I couldn’t help but share.

A few quick thoughts

I think this Animated Explanation does a great job of showing why cookies are a good thing, if you let them be. With so many (well-founded) web privacy concerns surfacing in the public consciousness this year, many people feel an immediate gag reflex to the idea that companies would want to collect any sort of data about them. In this climate, “cookie” in the web sense has become a bit of a dirty word.

But it’s easy to forget the good things that can come from this anonymous data collection. From user experience to product development, learning about the customer is an important part of what enables businesses to improve. At the end of the day, if the products and services that companies are providing aren’t improving, no one’s going to keep buying them. So the more information that companies can learn about an individual, the better they will be able to serve that individual.

In a world chock-full of advertisements, I’d much rather see ads for items or causes that are directly relevant and personally tailored to my interests — wouldn’t you?