On: Non-google sites send cookie requests through google search

[slater]

No, they're not doing that, it's Firefox's pre-fetching that does that. It's fetching parts of the linked sites, and in doing so, the site is trying to set a cookie.

Google has nothing to do with this.

[mqt → slater]

No, Google is directing your browser to prefetch the linked site by inserting

    <link rel="prefetch" href="http://example.com">

for links they think you'll visit.

http://tr.ashcan.org/2008/12/keeping-tabs-on-googles-confide...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Link_prefetching