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Never mind what Microsoft says. Web browsers do need to be fed. It keeps them happy and healthy. The bulk of their diet consists of cookies, with the occasional peanut thrown in for variety. When deprived of cookies most browsers experience problems with their long-term memory. Unfortunately many people are unfathomably paranoid (I blame the X-files) when it comes to the Internet and insist upon starving their browsers. There have been reports of serious consequences stemming from browser starvation over an extended period of time. These range from frequent crashes to incidences of browsers forgetting who their users are and, in extreme cases, an inability to access certain websites. 'Browser fatigue', as it is popularly known, has become increasingly prevalent among new browsers belonging to Internet 'newbies' (the term used to describe someone who has yet to catch on to the way the Web works). The burgeoning tendency of commercial websites to give out cookies to every browser they run into has had the effect of taunting those browsers whose users adamantly refuse to let them feed. In their malnourished condition these browsers develop an alarming habit of crashing at the most critical of times. The frustrated users complain vocally but do nothing to alleviate the hunger pangs that are plaguing their browsers. It is my intention in writing this column to spread the need for feeding your browsers regularly. The cookies cost nothing and are abundantly available at most websites. All that remains is for the collective will of the Internet-using masses to begin allowing their long suffering browsers to partake in the great cookie feast. Join the fight to save the starving browsers.