Well duh! Yes, browsers have had one ability or another for sometime to block cookies. And with all the privacy concerns, I really don’t blame people for wanting to do this either.

More and more often, Web surfers are blocking cookies, preventing companies from measuring what’s popular with visitors and improving their efforts to woo them.

Web analysis company WebTrends says that blocking cookies has increased fourfold since January of last year. That may sound like good news for consumers–no more Big Brother watching what you’re doing or bothering you with ads you don’t care about.

The ironic point is that, when used correctly, cookies can be helpful–they can give companies a better sense of what’s important to site visitors and allow them to present visitors with more pertinent information. [Read the rest]