Proximate and ultimate goals

Today I wrote some code to store the last viewed genome in a cookie and read it out when recording a goal. This means goals can be on whole different pages from genetified code!

The problem with recording goals only on the same page as the thing being tested is that the thing being tested may have its most interesting effect several pages away. An ad may be on a page selling something, but the actual commitment to buy -- the click-of-no-return -- may be past a catalog page, past a sign-up page, in a confirmation page.

Building this feature has raised some interesting questions: Should genetified pages be evaluated on their own exclusive goals, or should pages be evaluated on site-wide goals? Or both? How complicated should the summation of goals be?

Why only store the last genome? I did it this way out of concern for the 4k limit. But imagine a record of all viewed genomes following the user around, getting some kind of proportional attribution every time a goal is reached. That would be some crazy learning machine!