Web Secret #370: delete your Google history

Have you ever wondered what Google Search really knows about you?

I came across a terrific article that walks you through viewing and downloading your entire search history.

But as I was beginning to follow the bouncing ball to go through that process, I suddenly remembered how long I've been using Google, and how frequently I use Google Search. And I realized I didn't want to spend the rest of the week combing through my history, deleting unimportant links.

Frankly, I don't think it's Google's business to keep my history. Sure my history helps Google find what I'm looking for faster and gives me quicker access to pages I've visited before. But it is also tyrannical, and populates my pages with ads and sites it thinks I'm interested in. Well, I want to see what would turn up if Google didn't know me so well.

Long story short, I skipped over the beginning of the article and went directly to the simple instructions covering how to delete my entire history from Google’s servers:

1. Navigate to the Web and App Activity Page and click the gear icon in the top-right corner. (Note: you will be asked to login to Google if you haven't already done so.)

2. Select Remove Items and choose the beginning of time from the drop-down menu.

3. Click Remove. That’s it.

All of your search history will be deleted.