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Why cookies alerts are redundant

Why cookies alerts are redundant -- the tasselflower blog

Cookies are small pieces of data sent from a website and stored to your browser while you browse a website. They can store information such as when you logged in to a site or the things you wrote on a form. For instance when you comment a blog post on this site your name, website url and email address are stored to a cookie so you won't have to fill them in every time you write a new comment.

Cookies cannot carry viruses or install malware to your computer so using them is in that way quite safe. You can also turn the usage of cookies off of your browser, though this will make using many websites quite difficult if not in many ways impossible for you.

Nowadays, due to some laws and regulations, many websites warn their users of the fact that they use cookies. I think these alerts are totally redundant.

Scaring the uninformed

First of all the cookie alert may scare someone who is not that familiar with the technology behind websites or who uses web very little. For a user like this a warning text telling "this website uses cookies" doesn't give much information on what's going on and will only make them scared about using web in general.

Especially when the news are filled with stories about people getting their different accounts hacked or giving out their bank information or getting viruses and malware to their computers, a warning about cookies is likely to send them running away.

Annoying the informed

Those who know a little something of how websites work and are more or less familiar with cookies tend to get annoyed by these alerts. Many times I have witnessed people complaining about these warnings or pointing out how silly they are.

Us who understand the usage of cookies and even have our own sites that use them can't understand the real benefit for these warning texts. They only create distraction to the site, not inform about anything new. Because...

Cookies are everywhere

More and more websites are built with content management systems such as WordPress or Drupal. They pretty much require the usage of cookies, because without them staying logged into the administration is impossible.

Websites with advertisement may (or may not) use cookies to serve the "right" advertisement to the users. For instance Google AdSense uses cookies to make sure you won't keep seeing same ads all over and over again and so forth.

Statistics are quite important for websites. With analyzing them a website owner can find out how many people visit the site, what kind of content and layout works and what doesn't, when the website traffic is most active and much more. To get this information cookies are important. For example Google Analytics is quite common service for tracking website traffic and usage and to collect the anonymous information it uses cookies.

Yes, the cookies alerts are redundant

Warning the user about usage of cookies is redundant. It doesn't give enough information for uninformed ones and informed ones are likely to scoff at them.

Most websites use cookies for different reasons, such as to keep their users logged in as long as they want, to help the users so they don't have to refill certain information on certain types of forms, to serve advertisement and to get usage statistics. For many sites cookies are essential. Therefore it's safe to assume any site you visit uses cookies.

Of course it is also important that people who use websites learn how these cookies can and may be used by different sites. It's also important that they learn how they can disable the cookies (when it's not necessary) and to understand how the disabling cookies can affect their experience of web. This however is not going to be accomplished with these alerts that seem to pop up all over the web.

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Varoitukset siitä, että verkkosivu käyttää evästeitä ovat hyödyttömiä. Ne vain säikyttävät käyttäjän, joka ei ymmärrä evästeistä tai verkon teknologioista riittävästi. Niille, jotka ymmärtävät, evästevaroitukset tuottavat vain turhaa häiriötä ja ne tuntuvat hölmöiltä. Lisäksi evästeitä käytetään nykyään oikeastaan joka paikassa, joten evästeistä kertovat hälytystekstit ovat ylimääräistä ja heikosti informatiivisia.

2 replies | May 19, 2013 - 17:37 |

The year three

It's been now three years since this blog was launched. As often 3 year olds do, the blog is now able to say it's own name, kick, draw a person with two to four body parts, climb, tell stories and write a bunch of capital letters. In times it gets a bit cranky and often it's rather stubborn.

Nowadays there are a couple of thousand visitors here every month, the amount of visits growing slowly. In average visitors see one and a half pages and stick around a minute and a half (lots of halves there). During the past year the amount of visitors has multiplied. Happy!

There are now over 1000 blog posts around here and about as many comments (my comments and pingbacks included). Hundreds of spam comments are blocked during a day.

To celebrate the blogs birthday until the end of this month (April 2013) you can use the coupon code BLOGDAY at tasselflower crafts Etsy boutique. The coupon code is worth of 30% discount of all your purchases.

What do you think about the blog? Why did you come here? Do you come here often (sorry, old line, I know)?

Thank you for stopping by my colorful blog!

Photo by D. Sharon Pruitt under Creative Commons license.

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Tämän blogin ekasta bloggauksesta on kulunut kolme vuotta. Kuten monet 3-vuotiaat, tämäkin blogi osaa nyt sanoa oman nimensä, potkaista, piirtää kaksi- tai neliraajaisen ihmisen, kiivetä, kertoa tarinoita ja kirjoittaa joukon isoja kirjaimia. Joskus se on myös pahantuulinen ja usein itsepäinen. Nykyään blogissa vierailee parisen tuhatta kävijää joka kuukausi. Määrä, joka kasvaa hitaasti. Keskimäärin kävijä tsekkaa yhden ja puoli sivua ja pysyy mestoilla puolitoista minuuttia. Viimeisen vuoden aikana kävijämäärä on moninkertaistunut. Iloista! Blogipostauksia on tuhatkunta, kommentteja suunnilleen saman verran. Päivän aikana estetään satoja spämmikommentteja. Juhlistaakseni blogin synttäreitä tarjoan kuponkikoodin BLOGDAY käytettäväksi ennen huhtikuun loppua tasselflower crafts Etsy boutiquessa. Koodilla saa 30% alennuksen. Mitä tykkäät tästä blogista? Miksi tulit tänne? Tuletko tänne useinkin (sori, vanha iskulause, tiedän)? Kiitos, kun kävit!

2 replies | April 24, 2013 - 20:03 |

Easy ways to find new blog post ideas

Sometimes we all run out of subjects to blog about. And sometimes it seems like everything has already been blogged. Maybe your blog feels like an abandoned Western movie town. No worries, I know a couple of easy ways to come up with new blog post ideas that will drive the traffic (back) to your blog!

Check your site statistics - Check which content on your blog is most popular according to the Google Analytics (or where ever your site's statistics are hiding). Can you write something new about that same subject? Perhaps you could revisit the subject from a new point of view. Don't forget to also see which search queries have brought folks to your site and on which search queries your blog posts are appearing as results.
Reply to something someone else wrote about - Do you have a new or just plain different point of view to something someone else wrote about? In addition to commenting at their blog, write your own version of the subject on your own blog (no plagiarism is tolerated). There are always as many sides to the story as there are those to tell it. Oh, and I don't mean you have to oppose this other person's writing. You can as well give more reasons to agree with them. Add a link to the post or article your are "replying" to.
Try something new - Try doing something new in your life. Get a new hobby or just plain try knitting for a week. Physical exercise is a great way to get ideas flowing. You can write about this new thing in your life, but new (fun) things also give you other new ideas.
Search for blog post ideas - If you google "blog post ideas" you'll get so many results with so many ideas you could write several posts every day without running out of ideas very soon. Check out Ten blog post ideas and Five blog post ideas for showing your personality. I've also listed some good resources for finding blog post ideas.

Do you have a perfect way to come up with new blog post ideas or did you try one of these? How did it work for you? Do share your thoughts with all of us on the comments!

Photo by Ramunas Geciauskas under Creative Commons license.

7 replies | October 5, 2012 - 03:57 |

Of search and the Weekly Wrapup

Minna M. had noticed some strange Google searches leading to her blogs and was asking how have us, other bloggers been found. I checked my Google Analytics since the very beginning of this blog and found a couple of gems there.

All sorts of pervs had been searching for naked cleaning lady and hot bikini pic, though both can be found on this site. Sort of. Along those short patience has been a very popular way to end up here. The previous were amongst the top search phrases, alongside with several different versions of them.

The creepy category includes 10 worst stalkers ever (reference material, perhaps), i want to see my cleaning lady naked (do you really?) and isä porn (isä is dad in finnish).

The silly ones include searches such as how would you describe a tomato, laxative for swine, was pablo neruda fascinated by bugs as a child. So random, so definite.

Facebook chat and newsfeed settings, as well as being added on other people's Google+ circles without permission (yes, that's how it works) and the vanishing Twitter @mentions seemed to have worried bunch of searchers. Other techie stuff was also included, which is not that strange considering what I tend to blog about.

Things you may have missed (eg. Weekly Wrapup)

Twitter Tuesday: Tweetbot - "The main reason I bought Tweetbot is it's muting feature."
What's your favorite color? - "There are also other pretty colors and loads of color combinations that make me drool."
Stormtroopers captured - "-- the Empire's finest were caught by JD Hancock from doing all sorts of nutty?"

Don't want to miss anything anymore? Like on Facebook to join the party!

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Minna M. oli huomannut, että hänen blogeihin oli päädytty hassuilla Google hauilla ja kysyi, että miten meidät muut bloggaajat oli haettu ja löydetty. Yllä listattuna joitakin yleisimpiä, karmivimpia ja hassuimpia. Mukana myös viime viikon bloggaukset listattuna. Etkö halua missata enää mitään? Tykkää Facebookissa niin pysyt kärryillä!

2 replies | June 11, 2012 - 17:17 |

Hey hey, it's TWO years old!

It's been now little over two years since I launched this blog. This isn't my first blog exactly, I had one 2003 to 2005 (if I remember right). That one was in Finnish and I built my own little blogging system with PHP and MySQL. Things have changed since, a lot. And I think most people have forgot I used to blog back then.

This one in English and running on Drupal was first called By the way and later renamed as Tomato Branch. Now it's just tasselflower, as I decided to unify my online presence. And if you wonder what the heck is tasselflower, take a look on how I became one.

Through this time not just the name has changed. This blog has seen a whole bunch of different designs. I use this like my own personal sandbox, tweaking and testing stuff.

Some interesting statistics can be fetched from Google Analytics. For instance currently this blog gets only about 200-300 visits per month. Not much. Average visit takes almost one and half minute and average amount of pages visited is a little less than two.

Half of the visits has been by new visitors. Usually on a good day around 20 visitors come by. For some reason I still don't know on March 28 2011 the blog took in a strange flock of 289 visitors.

I want to thank everyone who has, during these past two years, visited the site. I want to give special thanks to those who have commented, voted on polls and otherwise interacted with me through this blog.

Photo by Will Clayton under Creative Commons license.

Suomeksi (In Finnish):

Tämä blogini on ollut nyt pystyssä vähän päälle kaksi vuotta. Eka bloginihan tämä ei ole, alunperin bloggasin joskus vuosina 2003-2005. Silloin kokonaan suomeksi ja itse rakentamallani alustalla. Tämä tapaus on vaihtanut nimeä ja ulkoasua jonkun kerran. Googlen Analytics kertoo, että vierailijoita täällä käy non 200-300 kuukauden aikana ja keskimääräinen käynti kestää puolisentoista minuuttia. Puolet kävijöistä tämän kahden vuoden aikana on olleet uusia. Haluan kiittää kaikkia täällä käyneitä. Erityisesti haluan kiittää teistä niitä, jotka ovat jättäneet kommentteja, äänestäneet kyselyissä ja muutoin vuorovaikuttaneet kanssani tämän blogin kautta.

5 replies | May 15, 2012 - 22:59 |

Belated birthday

Year ago, on April 21, after a couple of years of blogging hiatus I proudly announced Here I am. First the blog was called By the way, but at some point through the following months I renamed it Tomato Branch.

Since that first announcement the whole site has lured in 4000 visitors and about 8000 page views (according to Google Analytics). About 250 comments have been made, including pingbacks and my own replies. More conversations have taken place on Facebook and Twitter.

Thank you for everyone who has visited Tomato Branch and who are following this blog in a way or another. Especially thank you for everyone who has given their input to the blog by commenting and voting on polls. Happy belated blog birthday to all of us!

The sweet photo by Theresa Thompson.

2 replies | May 11, 2011 - 03:25 |

7 months

Tomato Branch (previously By The Way) has been here to entertain you for a bit over 7 months now. If my count is right. Since then there I've wrote 65 posts (66 if this one is counted), which have received 109 legit comments (that's about 1,7 comments per a post). Note that about a half of the comments are made by myself. The wonky spam stats claim that there has been about 30 000 spam comments prevented or marked as spam. I have also posted 7 polls.

I started to use Google Analytics at some point in the end of May and since then there has been (according to the Analytics) 1 139 visitors on the site. The average of pages shown through one visit seems to be 2,4 and the average time spent on the site per visit is about 2 minutes. A bit over 60 % of visitors leave the site straight away. The most popular page is the front page of the site.

The most used search keyword seems to be Mervi Eskelinen (the site is at the top of Google search when searching my name at the moment). And the site which have been sending most visitors in is Valokuvatorstai. The top five countries of the visitors are Finland, United States, United Kingdom, Spain and O, Canada.

Thank you for all who have visited Tomato Branch so far and another thank you for those who have took the sec to vote on the polls. A special thank you for those who have commented, those who have tweeted the posts and for those who have linked from their sites to this little space in the corner of web!

0 replies | November 30, 2010 - 19:30 |

Hello, my name is Mervi!

I’m a Digital Craftswoman, geek, cat person, dreamer, awesome, always right and quite boring. This is the tasselflower blog about web design, social media, life, marketing and business. Have some tea!

Mervi Emilia