"Cookie" isn't a word that we use here in Australia. Instead, we use the word "biscuit." When I hear the word, "cookie," the image that pops into my head is American kids coming home from school and having milk and cookies.

Eating cookies and milk after school is an American tradition, not an Australian one. Kids come home from school here in Australia and eat toast with vegemite. Vegemite is a uniquely Australian, thick, black, gooey substance that makes non-Australians choke. Australians love it.

These cultural differences distracted me, and for a long time I had the wrong analogy in my head. I didn't see the relationship between "milk and cookies" and "Internet cookies."

A day of revelation came however, and I realized that the correct analogy for Internet cookies wasn't "milk and cookies," rather it was "Chinese Fortune Cookies." Ding! On came the lights, and it all made sense.

Strangely, Netscape's cookie specification document (at http://www.netscape.com/newsref/std/cookie_spec.html) says, "The state object is called a cookie, for no compelling reason." I don't believe this.

The Chinese Fortune Cookie is such an excellent analogy that it's hard to believe that the Web browser programmers didn't have Chinese Fortune Cookies in mind when they coined the term.

Chinese Fortune Cookies aren't even Chinese. They're a product of the U.S.A, invented in 1909 by Makota Hagiwara, manager of Golden Gate Park's Japanese Tea Garden in San Francisco. Makota handed them out to his customers as a thank you.

Other accounts say that the Chinese Fortune Cookie came about in the 13th or 14th century when the Mongols reigned over China. The Chinese planned rebellion against the Mongols and communicated their plans in secret messages hidden inside Moon Cakes that are traditionally used to celebrate New Year.

Whatever their origin, the underlying concept is the same. Chinese Fortune Cookies are little packages containing a simple text message. Internet cookies are also little packages containing a simple text message. In addition to the text message, Internet cookies store some other stuff, such as an expiry time that states how long the cookie is valid for, and a list of domains for which the cookie is valid. There's not much more to it than that. Cookies are little chunks of text passed from a Web server to a Web browser and back again.

Maintaining session state: making up for Domino's lack of memory
Fortune cookie says: "It takes more than good memory to have good memories."