Search History

WaPo reports Google's "my search history" is designed as a kind of Internet memory aid, giving people new ways to find information they previously saw online and to repeat previous searches.

The search history is an optional feature that requires people to sign in, so Google can store their searching histories online and make them available later from any computer where they might sign in. People who already have an e-mail address from Google's Gmail site or have registered at its Google Groups site can use those log-ins; anyone can also sign up for a new account.

This history feature is surprisingly detailed, showing not only what terms you entered into Google's search box before, but also which matching Web sites you clicked on, along with date and time stamps. A calendar view lets you browse through previous searches chronologically as well.

This sounds interesting, but there are a number of people who express significant privacy concerns. I wonder what they are searching for. <grin>

While Google tracks your searches whenever you are signed in, you can ask it to avert its gaze temporarily by clicking a "pause" button. You can also sign out entirely to stop all recording activity until you sign back in. A "remove items" button will erase all or some of your prior searches.

Google is far from the first Internet service to save people's searches, though it offers a few more choices with its implementation. Yahoo, America Online, Ask Jeeves and Amazon.com's A9.com also offer search history services.

All provide a basic ability to scan through prior search histories while people are signed in, allowing them to limit a new search for, say, "cave men" to all the previous pages Google has shown them in response to prior queries.

nacho blogged This week Barry blogged about Google My Search History and pointed to other sources from our industry that talked more in depth about this new direction. Today for the first time I noticed that Google has added "My Account" to its homepage as well as a link to "My Search History" and of course the ability to sign out. Here is a snapshot



rustybrick blogged Google just announced Google My Search History, a method to "view and manage your search history from any computer." Chris Sherman has a detailed write up about this new product by Google, where he begins by writing; "Say goodbye to bookmarks: Google has rolled out a seriously cool search history feature that automatically keeps track of all of your web searches and every page that you view from search results."