How to make your own bread? What is the name of the lace tip? How to increase your income in a simple way? Each of these questions is asked of Google every day, fueling our constant quest for knowledge. The American search engine responds exhaustively by providing varied, but sometimes dubious, links for the most precise answers. Once satisfied with our findings, we close the window. However, if we are not in private browsing mode, Google saves all these questions in its history, thus facilitating our future searches thanks to automatic predictions. Using this process, it guesses the music you’ve been listening to on repeat on your streaming platform for three weeks, the restaurant you booked last month, or even the stone that best matches your astrological sign. To limit this constant collection of information, you can clear your history. Here’s how to do it.
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Why clear my Google history?
As mentioned above, Google remembers all your activity on its platform. This is called history.. Thanks to this trace of your activity, it is able to offer you personalized and targeted content on a daily basis to meet needs that you may not yet have. Which can be annoying for some. This is a completely common and legal practice to which you gave your consent when you accepted the terms of use of the search engine. You can nevertheless delete a large number of accesses (such as geolocation) by going to the settings.
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How do I clear my Google history?
If you use Chrome as your browser, here is how to clear your history. Click on the three dots aligned to the right of your screen, just after your favorites (⋮). A drop-down menu will appear. Select “History” twice. A new window will open. From there you have two options: either you can manually select the pages you want to disappear from your history, or you can select “Clear browsing data”. This option gives you the option to clear your entire history or choose the period you want to disappear, on all devices from which you signed in to your Google account.
If you’re using Firefox, here’s how to do it. Click on the three parallel bars to the right of your screen (☰). Open the library and choose “History”. From there, you can choose to view your history or clear it entirely. If you are on MAC and using Safari, you have access to your history directly from the menu bar at the very top of your screen. Easy as pie !
How to automatically delete Google Chrome history?
To automatically delete Google history, including search history, you can configure automatic deletion settings.
On a computer (using a web browser):
- Access your Google account: Open your web browser and go to My Activity.
- Log in to your Google account: Make sure you’re signed in to the Google account you want to manage history for.
- Go to automatic deletion settings: In the menu on the left, click “Data & Personalization.” Scroll down to the “Activity History” section and click “Manage Activity.”
- Configure automatic deletion: In the “Web & App Activity” window, click “Auto-delete options.” Choose the time period you want to keep the history for (3 months, 18 months, or 36 months). Click “Next.” Confirm your choice by clicking on “Confirm”.
This will configure automatic deletion of Google history according to the time period you have chosen.
On a mobile device (using the Google app):
- Open the Google app: Launch the Google app on your mobile device.
- Go to automatic deletion settings: Tap your profile picture at the top right. Select “Manage your Google account.” In the “Data & personalization” section, tap “Manage Google activity.”
- Configure automatic deletion: Under “Web & App Activity,” tap “Auto-delete options.” Choose the history retention period (3 months, 18 months, or 36 months). Tap “Next” and confirm your choice.
Where is Google browsing history and how to view it?
Google browsing history, if enabled, can be viewed and managed from Google’s “My Activity” service. Here’s how to access browsing history on a computer:
- Go to “My Activity”: Open your web browser.Go to My Activity. Make sure you’re signed in to your Google account.
- View browsing history: On the main My Activity page, you’ll see a timeline of your recent activities, including Google searches and visited websites. You can use the search bar at the top to search for specific activities.
- Filter by type of activity: On the left side you will see different types of activities. Click “Web & App History” to specifically view browsing history.
- Manage history: You can delete specific items by checking the boxes next to each entry and then clicking “Delete.” To delete your entire browsing history, you can use the “Delete activity by” option in the left menu.
It is also possible to manage your browsing data from your browser settings, but this depends on the search engine you use (Google Chrome, Firefox, Edge, etc.). The steps will vary slightly depending on the browser, but generally you can access the history using a keyboard shortcut like Ctrl+H (Windows/Linux) or Command+Y (Mac) and delete individual entries or the entire history from there.
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