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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."
Here comes the paranoia that google is tracking EVERYONEs searches..just hiding the fact from those who don't sign up for this.
- nick
And before you privacy nuts start freaking out, this isn't the start of search logging, as proven here they've been doing it for some time.
Hello, Web portal.
They had to do it sooner or later.
Hasn't a9 been doing this for some time?
many privacy related discussions in the next days...
And surely someone will find some security issue...
I can think of quite a few searches I've run that I'd hate to be archived and cross-referenced against my name.
On the plus side, this always opens the door to hilarious new 'Paris Hilton's hacked t-mobile' type tomfoolery.
"From the i-can't-believe-its-not-butter department, Slashdot reader AnonymousCoward writes 'rofl! I haxored google history, and guess what, Linus was searching the net for patches to his Windows 2000 machine! omfgroflolololo!!!OPijsdf0+++NO CARRIER'"
Well, that, or horse porn.
It's annoying as hell, because it tries to auto-fill your searches. It does it at the worst times, too. I was sitting down with my g/f and was Googling for something and it was happily showing a list of things that I had searched for, giving away the fact that I was looking for restaurants to visit.
I'm just glad I wasn't Googling for "itch on my nads" or anything like that. Sheesh.
Now your boss can find out which pr0n, mp3s, movies, and other stuff you've been Googling for...
Help save the critically endangered Blue Iguana
This should definitely save me some headaches when I try to find a particular page, but can't find it again!
Especially when search ordering changes, and the one useful page that was #1, is now #20. Doesn't happen often, but has happened.
Can't wait to see what the next thing is that google comes out with!
"Real programmers don't comment their code. If it was hard to write it should be hard to understand."
When this feature is enabled, Google adds an "onmousedown" event to the search result links which makes you hit their servers first, and then they redirect you to the page you requested. You might not even notice this is happening since you can't see in the status bar that the URL you are visiting is different. (And since they are not using any status bar text changing tricks to fool you, the Firefox settings to prevent people from changing the status bar text would have no effect, obviously.)
::cough michael ::cough) ought to love this.
I think this feature is pretty damn cool, and I have no reason not to trust Google will adhere to their privacy policy and not abuse this information. I am sure the privacy nuts (i.e. those that like to have knee-jerk reactions to anything that even hints at privacy implications
You can turn the tracking off easily by pressing the "pause" button in your Google History page, or by going to your google account settings and selecting "Delete History." I verified this causes the onmousedown code to disappear completely.
Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
Yahoo is apparently rolling out a similar type service soon...don't see much use in looking up old searches frankly. Its probably more useful for these firms to collect data for advertisers than it is for aiding in my future data retrieval.
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.
Foxed Design
*examines your search history*
*retches*
You can't talk about Wikipedia's flaws on Wikipedia
Why have a computer?
Just have a terminal that boots into the all new Google OS 1.0
Isn't that what Google is shooting for anyway?
Attila the Hun... Thomas Edison... Hoover Dam... Aha! Jenna Jameson!
Clear history.
"Eh, honey, you see, my friend started this band named 'hot asian sluts,' so I was looking for their Web page."
"Every day for three months??"
"Um, yes. Sometimes well into that night. (Cough.)"
Google requires that you have an account (you can use your GMail account) before you can access the history. They even offer you the option of deleting the My History feature from your account. But reading the privacy statement and FAQ shows that deleting the account does not delete the data or your history. The history is still collected it just isn't available to you anymore.
Ok, privacy concerns aside, that's a pretty spiffy thing to have. I've wracked my brain for old searches and old sites for technical data, bits of code, and so on and came up short a lot of the time. (who hasn't surfed to Google, typed in one letter and scrolled down the list looking for something you've typed in before?)
Hell, i've written my own browser cache downloader for Safari and Mozilla (with snazzy search engine and all the trimmings) just to keep all the places i've been to current. Remembering all the places i've been to using Google helps a lot.
Keep it lean and popup free, Google, and I will use it every day.
They use onmousedown on the links to save which links you've clicked on.
I blow away all my history, caches, etc before I shut down each and every time. I run a virus update and scan each evening while running my spyware catchers. I never give my real info on the net, I only ever give out my hotmail address except to a few friends and wouldn't you know it, my ISP mailer never gets spam, I've never had a virus hose my machine and I don't sweat too much on privacy.
In a world where the consumer's rights are constantly being eroded in favour of corporate and governmental rights, you'd best cover your ass.
The last thing I want, is a subpoenable search history. I search for a lot of things. I honestly do not want to be accountable for the things that I might search for, whether I get results of not.
I find this funny because I've been using A9 for the longest time and it already does this. I wonder how many other features they'll borrow from A9?
Slowly... you shall see... Google will rule!
but nyeeeh I've known about this before it was slashdoted... come on. You can be faster.
but really. I like this feature. I've always accidentally closed the browser after finding something and going "oh crap I needed that". This will solve that problem.
I for one will continue to embrace our Google Overlords
You have been warned.
If google tracks search terms, they've been hiding it very well.
paintball
I wanted a feature like this in Firefox/Mozilla for searches from the URL/search bars. So if Google does it themselves, this'll be GREAT. Yes there are "privacy" issues, but if you ask for it, like I am, then you kinda know that going in.
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
To quote a recent Penny-Arcade news post:
"This next statement could sort of open up into a tangential discussion on modern game design, but suffice it to say, there are no truly original games. There can't be, at least with modern console games, and I refuse to accept "What about Katamari Damacy?!?" Bullshit, I've played enough Super Monkey Ball and Marble Madness to know better. But you need to know recent games, landmark games, the major flops, and the highly expected upcoming releases, because we all copy game design from each other, in every game, going all the way back to Pong and SpaceWar. You need to be able to say "Well, that idea seems like a whole lot of work, when I know that we could just copy the scheme from Super Virtua Soul Machine 9 to do the same thing!""
The same could be said about computers and computer applications of all sorts. Nearly everything has already been done in one way or another, but it's just being built onto and made better (or in some cases, worse. [Insert mandatory MS bashing to get +5 Funny...]) This is a great idea as long as you're not some tinfoil-hat motherfucker.
Who the heck didn't alredy know this?
Google uses cookies with a unique identifier.
A unique identifier allows you to you build a profile of the person(s) who are associated with that cookie.
Google sells advertisements based partially on your profile. It's called "Know your audience".
94% of Repubs and 21% of Dems voted to renew the Patriot Act
No, it's the fourth.
So you can search for previous searches, but does it keep a history of your searches for previous searches? Can you search for previous searches for previous searches?
This sig is umop apisdn.
despite the paranoia that will undoubtably be associated with this, i much like the ability to go back and find not only a search result set, but also the particular link i clicked. it makes re-discovering information much easier
:(
note to self: no more porn searches
If you don't want to be tracked on the Internet, there's a simple solution: don't have a static IP address and turn off cookies.
With that said, if you think this feature is a privacy issue, you should probably have your web browser history and cache disabled. I can't wait for a virus that emails the victim's history and cache to everyone in their address book. Hilarity would definitely ensue.
"Don't panic"
"They are upfront...read their privacy policy"
"They have been logging all searches for ages therefore it's ok"
Listen. Most people don't read privacy policies, so remain blissfully unaware but what they are doing when they use Google. Most people don't even think about cookies, many more don't even know or care what they are. You could argue therefore that by inference they don't value or care about their own privacy. Well, hell maybe they don't. But actually that argument alone is not good enough.
Some of us have been passionately arguing that Google is a just kind of global Carnivore type project or at least with excellent potential to be one. No one knows really what Google actually do with the data they collect; how they link it together to form individual portfolios or how they treat it, manage it, or store it. No one knows how many times they have been asked by government agencies to supply information about their users and no one knows about the integrity of Google's employees, apart from romantic fluff generated by their most avid fans.
On another note Slashdot's obsession with Google is really quite unhealthy, and concerning, and I for one have submitted several Google critical stories here only for them to be rejected, but immediately a pro Google story will appear, giving an extraordinarily one-sided view about Google. If you only read Slashdot, you would think Google are something from heaven, but if you read other sites and news sources you will know that is simply not true.
And ok that is a seperate subject, but I just wonder what this site gets out of making a news item of every single thing Google do, and yet rarely or never a critical story on Google appears. It's actually quite creepy and very noticable.
While the privacy issues were the first thing on my mind, something else occurs to me now. If Google is keeping track of search histories, aren't personalized searches the next step. If Google can tell what type of sites you like to use, couldn't they lean the search one way or the other?
This will drive the seo guys crazy.
Tech News, Reviews and Tutorials
Google amazes me. It is the only company which could get away with stuff that is so rife with privacy problems as this.
Someone should start it. Seriously, google seems to produce new things every two days or so.
Good one, at the same time, providing a generally useless feature, WHILE discouraging multiple gmail accounts by transforming yourself in to a portal where people don't want to change accounts.
iWon.com usage skyrockets after adding a new feature which not only stores all past searches, but renames anything about porn to such things as "how to pop the question" and "how to be the perfect husband".
Turk: Let's play Steak. J.D.: What? Turk: Steak. The 1st person to finish their steak is the winner of Steak. -Scrubs
Welcome to My Search History!?????
I, for one, welcome our new Internet overlords.
Now you know why people want software patents, so giants like google do not profit from their ideas (pagerank was protected by a patent, and I assume that Amazon/A9 has a patent pending on this one)
Just another piece of information to be subpoenaed.
Lawyer: "Ladies and gentlemen of the supposed jury, according to Google's records, the defendant clearly searched for 'download Briteney MP3,' which makes him guilty not only of attempted copyright infringement (punishible by up to three years in prison), but stupidity in the first and second degree, and one count of poor spelling."
Jury: "We find the defendant, Mr. John Dumas, guilty as charged."
Defendant: "It's pronounced Doo-maas!"
Judge: "Sentenced to time served closing popups."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
Am I the only one who saw Google Adds and thought, "typo..."
https://www.eff.org/https-everywhere
A9 implemented search history with a plugin. Google does it cross-browser. That makes server-side search history available for Opera.
I use Google at home, I use google at work.
Will google differentiate between my work box and home box. Will I get porn ads and what not showing up on the google screen while at work (potentially embarrising at best, could place my job in jepoardy based on my employers anti-porn/ anti things that don't belong in the workplace policy). The ads might be based on what I do in the privacy of my home, but this would be like a big electronic google cum stain showing up at work.
I probally should have posted this anonymously...
A fellow worker asked me for help. I started up the browser, went to google and managed to press "m" when the browser helpfully suggested "miss sweden nude". Well, at least I wasn't his wife :)
but this is not the google calendar we were looking for. Come on, Google -- you know everything else about me -- my shopping habits, my personal emails, what I search for at 3am, don't you want my daily scheduling info as well?
Alas, I wrote too soon. Opera does show the Google search history, but it does not appear to update with new searches. Hmm. Untracked searches with one browser, tracked ones with another.
Or private searches with one Firefox profile, tracked with another.
Many variations.
You can not log in, no tracking occurs whilst not logged in AND while logged in, there is a "PAUSE" button which stops any additions to your search history until you RESUME it. Nice touch.
Hmmm can I import all the old searches that Google has stored against my cookie?
If not, why not?
ATH0 Bitcoin: 1DnwFLXczVZV8kLJbMYoheUrpqHesjxrSi
Reminds me of those crossing buttons they have at Traffic lights. Most of them aren't even hooked up to anything. The lights are completely computer controlled from traffic sensors.
I've got enough placebo buttons in my life...
My days of not taking you seriously are certainly coming to a middle...
...just want to find out what all the good porn sites are?
As a plus, this service finally provides an easy way to keep count of just how many Google searches you do by way of a counter on the "My Search History" page. Previously, my homespun solution involved creating a PHP script on my personal site which generated a counter graphic that I stuck onto the search result pages using a custom filter for Privoxy. It would even include a list of my searches in my site stats, but I eventually filtered it out because it added alot of noise to the list of google searches that led other people to my site.
One interesting thing I noticed is the number of times throughout the course of an average day that I toss something into Google. Not sure about the definition or correct spelling of a word? Just Google it. I found that it isn't unusual for me to use Google 20+ times in just a few hours.
AFAIK, Google only logs the IP address, search query, and time/date. This helps the company track usage, patterns, and gives them a huge database of real-world search strings for testing.
I recall hearing about this when Google first spoke up about its massive server farms and distributed storage. From what I recall, their logs are spread across all of their servers as well.
I think it would be neat to bring up a list of all of the Google search queries requested via my IP address. It would be fun to see what sort of stuff I was looking at several years ago... "Windows 2000 Reviews", "linux 2.4 kernel new features", etc.
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Bill Gates nu....oh wait
http://xs4.xs.to/pics/04481/p556222.gif
Just yesterday, I was ready the Ask Slashdot question about which applications or services was best for managing bookmarks.
Lots of peoples told the guy to just do the searches again on google or that it would be cool if a browser could cache all your searches or things like that.
I just tried it, it is way cool. You can selectively delete entries you do not want to keep, keep the one you want to and search them. I did not read or found how the information is stored but I hope that it reside on their server so that I do not have to worry about losing it if I erase my cookies/cache or just reformat my hd.
And sorry to all the tinfoils hat over here, but I have my mails on their servers already and do not mind it so do you really think I care about my search history? Anyway, THIS will be how I manage my bookmarks from now on. All the relevant search I made kept where they were made. Great idea, even if I read they were not the first to do it.
I'd rather be sailing...
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.
Connect a bot up to a dictionary, and randomly pull words out of the dictionary and run google searches on them. There'll be so much noise associated with your searches that it'll be hard to separate out useful information.
Of course I speak for all of us on Slashdot when I say, I do not need another way for mom to find my pr0n.
No kidding, there are 4 articles on Google on the front page right now.
Hey editors - how about condensing all that into a single areticle, huh? Maybe a Daily Google Quickie will cover all the submissions you guys get on them?
I love how Safari saves my searches. It has every search I've made since I got my computer in August. It is fun to look through and see all the variations of one search I have made, and such. Also, it is amazing how many times I can spell something wrong before Google corrects me :).
I say it is a good feature, if you don't like it you can always turn on Privacy Mode in Safari 2.0 in Tiger.
From : Turn it off
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.
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
GDS keeps track of your Internet history, so you can actually search (and view) the cached contents (from multiple dates) of the sites you've visited with Firefox or IE. I only use GDS for this function, as I'm organized enough to know where I've put specific files on my HD. I don't use AIM or email much either. It also only searches the first 5000 words of a textfile, so it's useless for my IRC logs as well.
Google Search history keeps track of which pages you've visited through Google, but Google Desktop Search keeps track of every page you visit.
As a sidenote, I discovered that GDS merely takes a system screenshot to generate its website thumbnails.
Why? If they don't want Google to profit off their [great] ideas, why not just do the Capitalistic thing and make yours better, so people use it?
First people saying that the Google guys are trying to avoid taxes by cutting their salary to $1.00 a year, now people are paranoid that providing an option to save your searchs is part of some big consperacy to create a profile on everyone. You don't have to log in when you search. Besides, they'd be able to make a much better profile by reading your Gmail account than by saving your search history in your account. In fact any email provider could do that.
Are some people just pissed that Google can be such a big company and still be (semi) reputable?
Instead of flushing my cookie all the time, I've been using GoogleAnon
"Google has released My Search History (Beta)."
:P
Yeah, that kind of goes hand-in-hand
You know, if they do ever become "the new Microsoft", it's safe to say that we can expect to see this on Google's main page:
"New! Google attempts world takeover (beta)".
You know... so they can back out if it doesn't fare well.
"When the atomic bomb goes off there's devastation...but when the atomic bong goes off there's celebraaaaation!"
mod cookie, still use google
Its well and good to add cynical `people are paranoid` posts. How about a technical solution to side step google cookies? Here is one reference from www.google-watch.org where you can disable the cookie tracking ID , google [1] inserts in your cookies.
are cookies & uniqueIDs evil?
The simple url *hack* allows users to maintain their preferences via a modified url rather than the cookie. At the same time google doesnt get to use its unique id with your search patterns.
an experiment to try
As the original author(s) noted this is an more of an experiment to see how much google value their uniqueID by noting how long it takes for them to notice and rectify the cookie beahaviour. You can read more about the steps needed to do this at http://www.google-watch.org/cgi-bin/cookie.htm
references
[0] Snippet of current google privacy policy on information sharing
- http://www.google.com/privacy.html
[1] Explains about googles use of cookies and possible intention[2] Read here about the implications of googles privacy policy on data collection
[3] Snippets from Privacy FAQ for My Search
[4] Snippet from current google policy on data collection
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
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.
Candygram for Mongo!
Ok, so when I press the mouse button (should give an onMouseDown event, right?), but then move the mouse away before releasing it (which causes the link not to be clicked), Google will assume I've gone to the page?
The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
Google saves history anyway. I'd be very surprised if Yahoo and MSN didn't do this too. They've been doing this for years. IANAL, but it seems to me that Google's privacy policy (http://www.google.com/intl/en/privacy.html) details that they'll only share the info within the company (between different data centers), when required by law and in aggregate (where all personal info is effectively lost). This seems perfectly reasonable unless some dreadful laws pop up all of a sudden - but would Google really be the entity to blame for that?
Letting you view your own history is completely opt-in, you can 'pause' the recording of what appears in your history at any time, and you can clear the history at any time, never mind logging out to hide it. The only privacy issues that can surface here are those that surface because the people using this don't know how to turn it off. How's this any different from the guy surfing porn not knowing how to empty his cache and clear his history? This doesn't seem any more "rife with privacy problems" than your ordinary web browser.
I guess that soon this feature will also interact with Google Desktop and provide a "recent documents" view organized by calendar.
This is what Microsoft promised for Longhorn with the name of Stuff I've Seen. Google will be able to bring it into XP. Interesting.
Singularity: a belief in the "God" idea with the "demiurge" relation inverted.
ok .co.uk.
google seems to be on a roll here: churning out products and features one after another. yesterday it was maps n local
i dont know exactly how many prodcuts and features they now have but i know their next realise shoudl be a my.google.com where u can bookmark all the google products u like to use and it can give u a summary ala my.yahoo.com
_ In Egypt Networks: Network Solutions with a Twist
Also, I'd wager it's safer from a legal standpoint. Crazy parents try to sue gun manufacturers for school shootings. I've yet to see someone sue Hustler for inciting their child to sire children upon his underage girlfriend.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
The other search engines really only get article time from individual posters every-now-and-then, like A9 or Yahoo, etc. It's really getting out of hand.
-msb
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.
They'll have the info, you just can't access it anymore when you turn it off.
-msb
When I first heard about the search history feature, I was hoping it would track searches on Google Scholar in addition to regular Google queries. No such luck!
"Computer Science is no more about computers than astronomy is about telescopes." - E.W. Dijkstra
People who aren't running Windows can't use GDS. I had to use Windows for a little while, and did enjoy the features of GDS. But, once I escaped back to Linux, the lack of search features was a little bothersome. I used it for much the same thing you do, so Google adding this feature to the website allows me to get much of the functionality I used in GDS anywhere I go ... not just on the Windows machine I did the search from.
Lack of eloquence does not denote lack of intelligence, though they often coincide.
GDS doesn't organize the results in a handy calendar view. And My Search History has features that GDS doesn't, such as "Related history" and "Searches with no clicked results."
And it doesn't track other searches, such as images, groups, news, etc.
I mainly search from google.co.uk, but Google Search History only seems to remember the searches I make from google.com
is that you log into google as we..
If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating