The estimated reading time for this post is 5 minutes
Update => Be sure to check out Google Has a New Way to Quickly and Easily Delete Your Search History to learn how to delete your recent Google search history with a few taps.
Google just launched a new feature that could be your dream come true..or a living nightmare. You can now view and download your entire Google search history so you can see everything you’ve ever searched for on Google, from the very first time you Googled something.
The good news is that you can keep this information for reference or you can delete it so your search history is erased. Your choice.
You may think of this information as a treasure trove of data that will be very helpful to you. If you’ve ever tried to remember what you searched for before that led you to the perfect website, then having your entire search history available to you might be a bonanza.
But if you’d prefer for your record of Google searches to be erased, then now is a good time to do that. Perhaps you’re logged into your Google account on your work computer and you’ve been searching: “How to get a new job when you have the worst boss ever.”
Bad idea. Now may be your opportunity to purge your search history so no one can log into your Google account and see what you’ve been searching for.
How to Find Your Google Search History
You can find your entire Google search history from now back to the beginning of time. Or back to when you first got a Google account. Whichever came first.
To view your Google Search history go to Google Search History Help Page and follow the steps:
1. Visit your Web Apps and Activities page (link in the Google Search History Help Page above). You’ll be asked to log into your Google account. If you’ve set up 2-step verification for your password, you’ll be asked to review the settings.
[note] If you were looking for an incentive for setting up 2-step verification on your Google account, I think you’ve probably found it.
See, How to Use 2-Step Verification for an Extra Layer of Password Protection [/note]
2. After you’ve verified your password and 2-step verification settings you’re taken to a page that shows your entire search history on Google.
What Your Google Search History Shows You
Your Google Search history page shows you terms you searched for on Google in chronological order as well as data about your searching habits. Google shows you both the terms you searched for and the websites you visited using those search results.
Your Search Trends
Google also shows you your search habits with Trends. You can see which hours of the day and which days of the week are your busiest on Google search. You can also see which days of the current month you’ve been most active on Google search.
Google also shows you exactly how many searches you’ve done. I’m at 15,561 searches but I’m pretty sure that number will go up before I finish writing this article.
Click on Show More Trends to see information such as:
- Top websites you’ve visited from Google search
- Top terms you’ve searched
- Top links you’ve clicked on
- Monthly search activity
What Your Search History Doesn’t Show You
If you use other search engines, such as Bing, Yahoo, Duck Duck Go, etc. your search terms won’t show up in your Google Search history. Also if you search on Google when you’re not logged into your Google account your search terms won’t show up in your history.
How to Delete Your Search History
To remove items from your search history you’d rather forget about or never, ever want another human being to see, click on Remove Items at the top of your search history or click the gear icon and choose Remove Items.
You don’t have to erase your entire search history (that might look suspicious?), you can choose to remove recent searches.
Remember, this is the Internet so don’t assume that by removing items you’re totally in the clear. Hey, you never know who’s watching, right?
Google Search Results After Deleting Your Search History
Note that Google learns about you from your search history and tries to tailor your search results accordingly. If you delete your entire search history Google’s results may not be as accurate for you in the future.
To get an idea of what your search results would be like without your search history, log out of Google then search for something using Google. Compare those results with your search for the same term when you’re logged into Google.
⇒ Check out, How to Find Out What Google Knows About You
How to Download Your Search History
If you want to keep a record of your search history, you can download it from Google. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner of your screen and choose Download.
Google seems to understand the importance of this information because it provides you with this warning message before you can begin the download process:
Confirm that you’re ready to go and Google will begin preparing your archive of your search history. Google will send you an email when the download is ready. My file of searches (up to 15,562 as of this writing) was ready in under a minute.
You’re sent an email from Google Web History with a link to where your download file is in your Google Drive account. Click on the View In Drive link in the message to go to your Google Drive account and find the file.
Your history is in a .zip file you can download by clicking the down arrow at the top of the screen. When you unzip the file you will see that the information is in a JSON file, which is quite a bit more complex than reading a text file.
Your Thoughts
Have you checked out your Google Search History? Are you willing to share with us how many searches you’ve done on Google? How do you feel about viewing and downloading your Google search history? Share your thoughts with us in the Comments section below.
Hi Carolyn,
This is really amazing!
I never knew that we can have this as a download file in Google drive or in our computer.
Wonderful!
I just did and got and really amazed to see my own history!! LOL
So, sad to note that we can only get our search history only when we are logged into Google, is there any other way to catch up the other side too!! LOL
Just kidding!
Anyways this is really a new information to me.
Of course I know about the ctrl+H will also get some history!!
Oh MY the entire history is really wonderful
Thanks for making known to us!
May you have a great day,
Keep sharing!
Best Regards
~ Phil
Hi Phil, Yes, this is fascinating information for anyone who is curious about their search history. I’m surprised that I had so many searches but I bet we all have more than we realize!
Yes, Control + H will show you your recent history which can come in very handy if you accidentally close a tab or a window. Nothing like a tech history lesson, right?
Carolyn
Am I right in assuming (by definition) if I delete my entire Search History I will delete all my Bookmarks, also?
If this is a risk, is there any known way to except my Bookmarks from a deletion of my entire Search History?
Hello Jack, Great question. You should be able to retain your bookmarks when you delete your search history. What you’re doing is deleting your search history when you have been logged into your Google account. This is different from deleting your bookmarks in your browser.
Hi, Carolyn, this is very interesting. It’s the sort of thing that people often protest about, protecting their privacy and so on.
I’m not sure if it’s actually going to be much use to me – I actually rely on Google history quite a lot. Very often I realise long after I’ve closed a tab that I want to refer to something that I saw earlier – most of the time I only have a vague memory of the domain so I’ve to trawl through history to find it again. I’m really grateful for history!
It’s good to know the option is there but I won’t be using it 🙂
Hi Donald, Yes, people might over-react and delete their search history then realize that was a mistake. They will be erasing data they might want later plus get Google Search results that aren’t as tailored to their needs as before.
Browser history is different from Google Search history. The list of sites you’ve visited is different from your Google Search history (unless you do a Google search for every site you visit).
Your browser (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Internet Explorer) keeps a history of the sites you’ve visited. Even if you delete your Google Search history your browser search history should not be affected.
Mine asked me to turn the feature on. If it’s been off before now, would that mean I don’t have a saved history? I didn’t want to turn it on to find out. haha
Hi Matt, Welcome to The Wonder of Tech. Yes, that probably means that you haven’t allowed Google to collect information about you when you search so you may not have a saved history. You could always turn it on, check your search history and turn it back off again.
I just wonder why some people want to delete it. And if you don’t really want to store it anyway, you can starting a private browser. It’s a feature in Mozilla Firefox. I won’t save anything when you surfing the web.
Hi Alize, Yes, if you’re not logged into your Google account when you use Google to search your history won’t be saved by Google in your search history file. You’re right, if you don’t want your search history to be saved, just log out of Google before you do your search.
When you’re logged into Google, then Google learns from which results you click on and how long you spend on that site whether its search results were accurate. Google tries to tailor your results according to those actions so next time you search Google knows better what you’re trying to find.
Keeping your Google Search history in tact means that all of Google’s learning about how you like to search will stay in place. That may mean for much better search results for you.
Yes. But for any person that want a high privacy, they don’t want any kind of these collect information.
Hi Alize, Good point. Yes, I have heard from some Wonder of Tech readers that they didn’t have any Google search history because they stay logged out of Google when they do searches. That is certainly an option but their search results may not be as helpful. Google learns a lot about us when we search. It’s our choice whether we want to log in so our search results help Google to refine its results for future searches.
Carol, it was interesting to see in the past I did more searches in the summer and on weekends. Fascinating stuff. I like that you can delete some and not all of your past searches too. It’s amazing the stuff we can do online now. And how much information Google can provide us.
Thank you for sharing with us how to do this. Great info!
I hope you have a great weekend ahead Carol.
Hi Lisa, Wow, that is interesting that you do more searches in the summer and on weekends. I tend to do the most searches on Tuesdays and Thursdays when I’m researching articles for The Wonder of Tech.
I agree, this is fascinating information and I’m so glad we have access to it now. I hope you’re enjoying your weekend, Lisa.
Fantastic post. The steps needed to see and/or remove your search history make this a great resource.
One question: What would be suspicious about removing the search history?
Hi Thad, I’m so glad you liked this post. Good question about deleting your search history. If you delete your search history it might look like you had something to hide. But maybe you just want to start with a clean slate with Google. Either way, your Google search history can only be accessed by logging into your Google account so if you’re concerned about someone seeing your search history you should be sure to log out of Google on your computers and enable 2-step verification for your Google password.
Hi Carolyn,
I never think we can download history. Some times, people come around such situation when they need to get to look up into their history.
You have crafted great article for all those people wo even searching how to delete history and downloaded it.
Thanks
Jyoti
Hi Jyoti, Yes, whether you want to access your Google search history or delete it, you can do both now on Google. But if you’re considering deleting it, be sure to understand that your Google search results may not be as accurate after your search history has been deleted.
Hello,
Your tutorial shows us very easy steps to remove entire history of Google search. Thanks a lot for sharing this helpful tutorial with us.
~Dr. Diana
Hi Dr. Diana, Great to see you back here at The Wonder of Tech!
Thanks, I’m so glad you found this to be helpful. I appreciate your visit and you joining in the conversation.
Have a wonderful week ahead.
Hi Carolyn,
I think I’ve done this in the past because if I remember correctly you had shared with us how to turn that off right? Mine was turned off so it wasn’t hanging on to all my searches and I never refer back to them anyway. It wouldn’t help me because I’m always clearing everything off my computer before I close things out for the night due to it being a little older and slower these days.
Thanks for sharing this with us and I went over and cleared it out just in case. I never like Google hanging on to everything we do.
Thank you my dear and have a wonderful week.
~Adrienne
Hi Adrienne, Yes, by seeing zero results in saved Google searches you’ve confirmed that you successfully turned off Google tracking your searches. Some people may want to retain their Google Search history while others aren’t comfortable with that. The good news is that you have an option and you acted on it!
Carolyn, I had nothing! Zero. Apparently I had either turned off the saving of the searches somehow or I don’t exist 🙂 Not sure which.
Hi Julie, That can happen. Check out How To Find Out What Google Knows About You to see how you can opt out and in of Google tracking you so you can save your searches.
In my case I don’t want to delete the history instead I found some searchers I really needed. Thanks for the post.
Hi Ahsan, Good point, this information is personal. Some people want access to it as they, like you, find it valuable. Others don’t want it at all so they want to delete it or disable Google tracking. The most important thing is to know that you have a choice!
Hi Carolyn,
I just visited my search history and it was actually a lot more interesting than I first thought it would be. I have searched via Google apx. 24 000 times, that seems to be a lot to me, but I have no idea if it really is. I search Google every day, and I have been using it for many years.
So far I don’t see anything that makes me want to erase the history, but it’s great to know how to do it, just in case 🙂
Thanks for letting me know about this Carolyn.
Hi Jens, Yes, if we’re on Google every day and logged in then we will rack up thousands of searches. Imagine how much more knowledgeable you are as a result of 24.000 searches! I can see why you would want to keep your search history but it’s also good to know that you can get rid of it if you ever need to.