How could we handle cookies instead of popping up a dialog for each cookie?
We could have a panel which lists cookies associated with a site, and new cookies offered by a
resource. In the current Mozilla design, this could be a sidebar, in a Mac OS X design it would probably be a
drawer. When the page loads, the resource list would have the new cookies set by the page and the old
cookies that were associated with the site. If the user wants to block a cookie, or delete a cookie, or
modify a cookie, the user can do it by selecting a cookie and using standard editing triggers (delete key,
f2 key, context menu).
Why would this work?
Cookies aren't interesting until their next use, which means
that you have time to consider them before they're sent out again.
What about cookies for embedded items?
Well, Mozilla could let you hover over an item to see a preview of the cookies associated with it, and
click select to keep that item active in the cookie panel. This would let you manage cookies for a link
you're about to visit, or for the server which is about to send you an image.
Does that really work for everything?
It could if you had a special user stylesheet which was designed to show all potential resources with at
least a placeholder.
Note that while the easiest implementation of this feature would probably be a sidebar, it might not be
the best. I'll write up some other ways to handle this context sensitive resource management in a later
essay.