Thread: New Google Feature May Embarrass You ...

Google knows what you searched last night.

And this morning.

And this afternoon.



The leading Internet search company is experimenting with a new feature called "My Search History" that allows users to keep track of their past search requests and results. The end result, as The Associated Press so succinctly phrases it, is this computer peephole into your personal life could prove as embarrassing as it is helpful.

To activate "My Search History," you must first create a personal login with a password; if you use Google's e-mail service, discussion groups, and answer services, you can use your existing log-in. Whenever you're logged on to the Internet, Google will display a detailed look at your past search activity. Luckily, there is a "pause" feature that will prevent it from being displayed in the index. The idea is to eventually store years of your personal search activity.

The useful part of this tool is you can go back and find a search you previously conducted, and the service can point out a past search result that may be related to a new search request. "We think there is some value in providing people with visibility into their past activity on Google," Marissa Mayer, the company's director of consumer Web products, told AP.


Not everyone agrees.

Privacy rights experts are up in arms since it will make it much easier for online snoops--from hackers to even Uncle Sam--to get at your search history. Google says people who share a computer may not want to use it. "This isn't for someone who is particularly sloppy about signing in and signing off," admitted Mayer to AP. "You have to have very good computer hygiene to use this." In addition, Google is paying attention to what you search so it can better customize its search results for your special interests, which in turn allows the company to better target advertising to you, notes Reuters.


Would you use Google's "My Search History" feature?
What privacy concerns, if any, do you have with it?

I would probably use it since I often do repeat searches. DD occasionally uses my computer, but no one else and she uses a different browser.

My biggest concern? That someone would find out what a boring nerd I really am

I just downloaded the google address bar b/c for some reason I cannot get the address bar up on the start pages on this computer, how weird is that? Anyways, one of the options was to send all of my pages and searches back to google or keep them private so they do not receive them. I really do not care if they look at what pages I go to, I am not embarressed - if anything, they would think the same thing they would of fatesfaery.