Google Labs unveils the latest Google service: My Search History. The short story is that Search History saves every search you make …
… no matter which computer you make it from, and lets you go back and view and use that history. The long story reveals far more staggering implications.
First, the details.
My Search History is available at http://www.google.com/searchhistory. You log in with your Google account, which means it works from any system. Now, when you go to My Search History, you will be presented with your previous searches and a calendar indicating visually the frequency with which you use Google.
Even bigger, when you go to Google.com, you are presented at the top of the page with this:
name@email.com | My Search History | My Account | Sign out
Yes, ladies and gentleman, that is what we call a portal. Google may want to avoid it, but with a logon at Google.com, they are now officially a portal. One day, I wouldn’t be surprised if we get to customize our Google.com with our favorite tabs, the option to integrate things like Google Suggest, and even custom Google Doodle. The Google Account is now part of your personal Google experience.
It’s funny, but a few night’s ago, a local news shows here in New York ran a story about how Google keeping track of “everything you ever searched for”. They even showed Daniel Brandt’s Google Watch. I, of course was yelling at the screen that they didn’t, that Google doesn’t do that. Well, if you want them to, now you can, just by signing up. I think it could prove pretty darn useful.
Here’s some privacy data, from the press email:
My Search History requires the user to register for a Google Account and their search history will only be made available to them if they are signed in to that account. All information is stored securely on Google’s computers thus enabling users to view their history from any computer. If they choose, users can temporarily “pause” collecting their search history by clicking the “Pause” button in the product interface. Users can also remove individual items from their history through the product interface or delete the service via their My Account page.
So, how well does it work? Well, it kept track of some searches I did where I clicked on nothing. It also did pretty well with a “Search Within These Results” search, and a “site:” search. However, the integration with the Google pages dissapeared on the “site:” results page, so that’s one bug that needs to be worked out. It didn’t have any trouble recording searches from the toolbar.
On the My Search History page, the previous searches appear as the search term, beneath which are the sites you cliked on and the time you clicked on them. Searches with no clickthrough are mentioned at the bottom. The top of the page has a search box, so you can search your history or the web, and below it is a pause link (for porn, of course). The pause button should be part of the login information at the top of the screen, as it is a very important feature for many lonely workers who don’t want to get fired.
The biggest problem is that it doesn’t work with all of Google’s services. It would be quite useful to have search history for Google News, Froogle, Images and more.
I think it is going to get exciting to look back at the calendar and see how many Google searches I’ve made. I think My Search History has a lot of potential, most of which will not be obvious until I’ve used it more. Most power searchers will discover over time methods they can use to search better and faster by taking advantage of the search history data. And that is certainly a good thing.
Google My Search History works with these browsers (or better): Internet Explorer 4, Firefox, Netscape 6, Mozilla, and Safari 1.2.
Nathan Weinberg writes the popular InsideGoogle blog, offering the latest news and insights about Google and search engines.
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