METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR MANAGING COOKIES IN WEB COMMUNICATIONS

1. A method for managing cookie data, said method comprising:

receiving a request for writing new data to a cookie to be stored in a user terminal;

determining whether addition of the new data will cause the cookie to exceed a size limit; and

determining whether the cookie has existing data which is not more important than the new data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising: deleting the existing data from the cookie only when the existing data is not more important than the new data, so as to protect important existing data in the cookie.

3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: separating cookie data into at least two tiers according to how important the cookie data is to a user's browsing experience, wherein data in a first tier is more important than data in a second tier.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising: determining which tier the new data falls into.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising: rejecting the request if the new data belongs to the second tier but the cookie is fully occupied by existing data in the first tier.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising: when the new data belongs to the first tier but the cookie has existing data in the second tier, deleting some second tier data to free room in the cookie for the new data and writing the new data to the cookie.

7. The method of claim 4, further comprising: when the new data belongs to the second tier and the cookie has existing data in the second tier, deleting some second tier data in the cookie to free room for the new data.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein the first tier data comprises user settings.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein the second tier data comprises page-level settings.

10. The method of claim 4, further comprising: determining the tier of the least important data in the cookie.

11. The method of claim 10, further comprising: comparing the tier of the new data and the tier of the least important existing data in the cookie.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising: writing the new data to the cookie only when the new data is more important than the least important existing data in the cookie.

13. A Web server comprising:

a memory device for storing cookies; and

a cookie management module which:

receives a request for writing new data to a cookie to be stored in the memory device;

determines whether addition of the new data will cause the cookie to exceed a size limit; and

determines whether the cookie has existing data which is not more important than the new data.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the cookie management module deletes the existing data from the cookie only when the existing data is not more important than the new data, so as to protect important data in the cookie.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the cookie data is separated into at least two tiers according to how important the cookie data is to a user's browsing experience, wherein data in a first tier is more important than data in a second tier.

16. The system of claim 15, wherein the cookie management module determines which tier the new data falls into.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the cookie management module rejects the request if the new data belongs to the second tier but the cookie is fully occupied by existing data in the first tier.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein when the new data belongs to the first tier but the cookie has existing data in the second tier, the cookie management module deletes some second tier data to free room in the cookie for the new data and writes the new data to the cookie.

19. The system of claim 16, wherein the cookie management module determines the tier of the least important existing data in the cookie; compares the tier of the new data and the tier of the least important existing data in the cookie; and writes the new data to the cookie only when the new data is more important.

20. A computer program product stored in a computer-readable medium having instructions which, when performed by a computer, perform a method for managing cookies, said method comprising:

receiving a request for writing new data to a cookie to be stored in a user terminal;

determining whether addition of the new data will cause the cookie to exceed a size limit; and

determining whether the cookie has existing data which is not more important than the new data.