Google Adds Search History Feature

Philipp Lenssen writes "Google has released My Search History (Beta). Login with your Google account (like your Gmail account), and a search history feature will be integrated right into the Google.com homepage. You can then retrieve pages you've previously found by either clicking on calendar dates, or by performing a full-text search. Other features are available as well."

By the way

[KinkifyTheNation]

And before you privacy nuts start freaking out, this isn't the start of search logging, as proven here they've been doing it [google.com] for some time.

a9

[AnonymousCowheart]

Hasn't a9 [a9.com] been doing this for some time?

Hmm...

[thegamerformelyknown]

The question is not whether they store it or not, as that can be done in many ways. It's HOW. Think about it. If they store it in their Database, then they COULD use it. But, if they use cookies or the like, then they don't have it. Think about that before getting all freaked out about getting tracked.

Re:Paranoid here we go..

[anthony_dipierro]

As was pointed out by someone else, they definitely are tracking everyone's searches. See http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html [google.com]. "Each of these variations was entered by at least two different unique users within a three month period" You can't get that information without tracking searches and retaining the individual information over a three month period.

Re:I forsee

[KinkifyTheNation]

Be aware that your Google search history main page contains your last search in the URL (it's a "prev" parameter). Sites you then click on may thus check their referrer logs to get to know what you were searching for previously, which is a potential privacy issue. Google has been alerted to this.

They already have!

Re:Paranoid here we go..

[That's Unpossible!]

Google does track everyones searches already. However, if you turn this service on, they also track which links you click on in the search results.

I don't see a problem with either thing since they are up-front about what they are doing and the privacy policy is clear about how they use this information.

"Upon your first visit to Google, a cookie is sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser. A "cookie" is a small file containing a string of characters that is sent to your computer when you visit a website. We use cookies to improve the quality of our service and to better understand how people interact with us. Google does this by storing user preferences in cookies and by tracking user trends and patterns of how people search."

Re:Hmm...

[anthony_dipierro]

Cookies are generally limited to 4K per domain. So they couldn't store very many previous searches if they used cookies.

Re:Why JavaScript?

[Anonymous Coward]

They use onmousedown on the links to save which links you've clicked on.

Re:Paranoid here we go..

[draxil]

Their only tracking it once you log on.

Re:Hmm...

[poot_rootbeer]

But, if they use cookies or the like, then they don't have it.

Well... they're not going to use an HTTP cookie to store your entire browsing history. No, they'll use a cookie to store a unique ID token, and use that to query their big backend database of everything that everyone has searched for.

If you activate this feature, your search history WILL be databased somewhere. It may not be easily identified as YOUR search history, but it's something to weigh if you have concerns over privacy.

Re:A9 does it with a plugin

[image]

Just to clarify (disclaimer, I'm a happy A9 employee), A9 saves the search history on the server. The A9 toolbar (for both IE and Firefox) does allow you to access your history, but it is entirely optional. You can sign in to A9 [a9.com] using your Amazon account and try out that (and many more features).

Re:Paranoid here we go..

[Fareq]

I'm giving up my right to mod this article, because your post gave me this insight:

Amazon recently "unleashed" the A9 search. It's a "search engine with a memory" or something like that.

It remembers what you searched for, and theoretically tailors your search results to things you've been looking for recently, and things you've bought from amazon.

You get a 1.57% (approx. pi/2) discount on all amazon orders if you use A9 search "enough"

I don't like using A9 -- and so only search for inane things on it, and just often enough to keep up the discount. Why? I don't *want* a search engine that figures out what I like to search for and filters those results.

Oh, sure, it'd make the results waaaaaaay more relevant. But I don't trust anybody, not even a component of future GoogleZon, with a highly organized and structured understanding of who I am at that level. Hell, even if I knew I'd be the only one to ever see the results, I don't know if I want to know what my searches and result-clickthroughs say about me!!!

Anyway, the important part of this post is: hey, take a look at A9. They seem to have been doing this for awhile now -- and very overtly -- read their marketing stuff...

Oh, and A9 is kinda cool, with a totally crappy interface... once you figure out all the stuff it does, its really nifty -- but scary for the same reasons...

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Confusing Privacy FAQ

[Amadawn]

I normally trust Google, but I must admit that their 4th bullet in their My Search History Privacy FAQ is confusing to say the less. From their FAQ page:

4. What happens when I pause the service, remove items, or delete the My Search History service?

You can choose to stop storing your searches in My Search History either temporarily or permanently, or remove items, as described in My Search History Help. However, as is common practice in the industry, Google maintains a separate logs system for auditing purposes and to help us improve the quality of our services for users. For example, we use this information to audit our ads systems, understand which features are most popular to users, improve the quality of our search results, and help us combat vulnerabilities such as denial of service attacks.

Enphasis mine.

They don't give any information on what they do with that "separate log" when you delete your search history. Their unclear wording gives the impression that even if you delete it they still keep it in their "separate log". So how is that different than not deleting it at all, other that you will not see it anymore?

That is pretty confusing and very un-google like, IMHO.

Re:a9

[glinden]

It's not just A9. My Yahoo Search [yahoo.com], My Ask Jeeves [ask.com], Findory [findory.com], and A9 [a9.com] all have had this feature for a while.

[Disclaimer: I work at Findory]

Turn it off?

[front]

From : Turn it off [google.com]

8. Once I've signed up, how do I stop storing my searches in My Search History?

If you don't want any of your searches to be saved by My Search History, you can either log out of your Google Account or simply pause the service by clicking on the "Pause" link in the blue title bar of your search history page. You can then "un-pause" it whenever you want your searches to be saved again by clicking on the Resume" link. You can also edit or remove specific searches or results from the service by clicking the Remove items" link.

To permanently stop using My Search History, you can delete the service by clicking the "Delete My Search History" link on your My Account page, which is accessible through the "My Account" links in the upper-right corner of your Google home page and search results pages.

To learn more about what happens to the data from your search history, please read the My Search History Privacy FAQ.

Re:What about employers

[Infinite Entropy]

Yes, Google has plenty of porn adds, but oddly enough they will NOT accept any adds for guns at all. Very strange. Maybe an insight into the founder's politics.

Not sure about A9, but Ask Jeeves has for a while

[Anonymous Coward]

Ask Jeeves has had this feature for months now, in addition to being able to selectively save your searches and results (instead of storing all of them like google does).

But if it ain't google, it ain't news.

http://myjeeves.ask.com

Appears to only work for Google.COM

[Ronnie Coote]

Localised sites, like www.google.co.uk or www.google.co.jp do not seem to have implemented this feature yet. Search terms that you enter at these sites don't appear in your Search History - just those from www.google.COM

RC.

Re:What about employers

[Storlek]

Every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten [wikipedia.org]
(Please, think of the kittens)