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Google Adds Search History Feature

Posted by timothy on from the film-at-11 dept.

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."

21 of 278 comments (clear)

  1. Paranoid here we go.. by VaultX · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Here comes the paranoia that google is tracking EVERYONEs searches..just hiding the fact from those who don't sign up for this.

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    - nick
    1. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Informative

      As was pointed out by someone else, they definitely are tracking everyone's searches. See http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html. "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.

    2. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by ShaniaTwain · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wait.. so I can search for a search that I've searched for before?!?

      and perhaps others can search through the searches that I've searched? Will I be able to search their searches of my searches?

      whoa. my brain just exploded.

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      Starsucks
    3. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Informative

      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."

      --
      Ironically, the word ironically is often used incorrectly.
    4. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Interesting

      However, if you turn this service on, they also track which links you click on in the search results.

      They're also then able to tie all of your IP addresses together.

      Upon your first visit to Google, a cookie is sent to your computer that uniquely identifies your browser.

      Yes, and upon my first visit to google, I told Firefox to deny the cookie and deny any further cookies from google.com. So yes, they can track my usage between different IP addresses, but I seriously doubt they're tracking all my searches throughout my entire lifetime (it's possible, but it'd be pretty hard and without getting a subpoena from my ISP it'd probably just be a best guess).

      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.

      Well, I see a problem with it, in that I don't want to be tracked in this way. But as long as they're upfront about it I don't think they're doing anything unethical.

      One thing they aren't upfront about is just how long they keep this data. If it's only a month or two, it's not so bad. But if they keep a record of every search that someone has done in her lifetime, I think that's pretty bad.

    5. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Absolutely, I think the advantage to google is tremendous. They already target ads to people based on location, which they guess from the IP address. If they know exactly who you are they can target ads a lot better, for instance they can target ads for you based on what you've searched for in the past. If they get enough people logging in, then they've even found a partial solution for the problem of people clicking on the same ad over and over from different IP addresses.

      There are also lots of potential advantages to the end-user. Letting you access your search history is just the beginning.

      This is also extremely open to abuse if the information is kept too long and falls into the hands of the wrong people. Imagine your google searches in the hands of an oppressive government. Search for communist writings, bible quotations, or Jewish pickles, and go to jail (yes, I'm kidding about the Jewish pickles, but just think what a modern day Hitler could do with access to everyone's google searches).

    6. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by FlopEJoe · · Score: 5, Funny

      Oh no! what if Google, like TiVo, thinks I'm gay. http://www.dfw.com/mld/startelegram/living/4662397 .htm

    7. Re:Paranoid here we go.. by Karl+Tacheron · · Score: 4, Funny
      See http://www.google.com/jobs/britney.html.
      Add the extension .mp3 to each of those.
      You now have the filelisting for KaZaa.
  2. Finally a Web portal by joshdick · · Score: 4, Funny

    Hello, Web portal.

    They had to do it sooner or later.

  3. a9 by AnonymousCowheart · · Score: 4, Informative

    Hasn't a9 been doing this for some time?

  4. Yikes! Privacy concerns for the unwary by Chairboy · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

  5. Interesting by That's+Unpossible! · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.)

    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 ::cough michael ::cough) ought to love this.

    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.
  6. Re:I forsee by KinkifyTheNation · · Score: 5, Informative
    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!
  7. Most used feature: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.)"

  8. Re:Safari likes to cache searches too by Hatta · · Score: 4, Funny

    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.

    Honey, it's not what it looks like! I promise!

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    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  9. Never! by raehl · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If google tracks search terms, they've been hiding it very well.

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    paintball
  10. What about employers by protolith · · Score: 5, Funny

    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...

    1. Re:What about employers by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Does google have porn ads in the first place? In any case, if you're worried about your employers in this way I'd suggest you don't log in to Google at work in the first place.

      Personally I wouldn't log in to any account from work, or from any computer that I don't own. Maybe it's paranoia, but I don't trust that my computer at work doesn't have a keystroke logger. I'd call it a good security practice.

    2. Re:What about employers by Infinite+Entropy · · Score: 4, Informative

      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.

    3. Re:What about employers by Niten · · Score: 4, Funny

      Hmm... but is there really anything odd about that? Their corporate mantra is "don't be evil". Guns kill people; porn, unless you suffer from some very extreme medical condition, does not.

  11. Re:A9 does it with a plugin by image · · Score: 4, Informative

    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 using your Amazon account and try out that (and many more features).