Google has published a patent for a method of tracking user behavior through its downloadable toolbar software and serving ads against this information in addition to the content of a Web site. In the filing, Google's Krishna Bharat happily explains how one method Google could use to accomplish this task is through "a cookie which is a persistent means of storage on the client computer." The problem with this: Before regulators approved its DoubleClick acquisition, Google executives promised privacy activists that it would carefully restrict how it uses browser "cookies" to keep track of user behavior.

Last year, Google placated privacy-minded opponents of its DoubleClick acquisition with promises to create a new kind of Web browser "cookie," a file which keeps personally identifiable information about a website's users. Now that Google has swallowed DoubleClick, the online advertising company seems to have lost its interest in developing these so-called "crumbled cookies," the Financial Times reports. Google CEO Eric Schmidt that's because cookies are too complex for Google to deal with. "What we've discovered about cookies is that every question leads to a one-hour conversation," Schmidt said. Please, folks, be a little more understanding: It's not that Google doesn't want to answer difficult questions about privacy. They're just too busy.