Take http://boston.cbslocal.com for example. I have an add-on installed call Ghostery.  It blocks tracking cookies and tells me what it’s blocking.  Here is what a news article had embedded in it as far as tracking cookies:

This is a much larger than normal list, although most websites normally have at least 3-4 of them.

Foxnews:

National Weather Service:

Just AddThis

Telegram.com:

www.newser.com:

 

cdc.gov:

This blog, where this article is posted, is using one tracker called “Gravatar”.  That’s so if you post a comment, it can add your icon next to your name. You have to previously have registered with gravatar for this to work.

I would recommend this add-on (Ghostery) to people concerned about their privacy.  It works with Safari, Firefox, and Chrome.  I’m not a Windows person, but would suspect it would support IE as well.