Question about how cookies work

[decimator]

I'm not a programmer, I'm just trying to get a better understanding of how cookies work.

What I'd like to know is:

When a website stores a cookie on your computer, what sort of information can it store in the cookie file?

Can a website that has previously stored cookies on your system only read information from the cookies that it has stored, or can it read information from cookies stored by other websites.

...and yes, I did try Googling this stuff, to no avail.

 

[sharkkk]

The first result for 'cookie' (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTTP_cookie) has all your answers

Cookies can only hold text, stored in name/value pairs.
Cookies are sent to the domain that set them only, your computer doesn't send all your cookies to every website it visits

 

[decimator]

Brilliant, thanks a lot, why didn't I think of using Wiki?