I saw this ad on the subway this morning. Now Google is targeting me offline! 

Hello David. What’s your name again?

Imagine having to reintroduce yourself to your friends every time you met them. Your name. Your age. Where you’re from. It would take forever, wouldn’t it? All you wanted was to catch up over a cup of coffee. This is why websites, including Google, use tiny crumbs of stored information (called cookies) to remember your previous visits. That way you don’t have to repeat yourself every time you go back. But it’s good to know that if you don’t want sites to remember your details, you can clear your cookies in your browser settings.

To find out more about how websites get to know you better go to google.com/goodtoknow

As a side note, This is a great explanation as to why lots of websites use cookies. But it isn’t why Google uses cookies. Google uses them to target ads at you.