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Effective_Web_Search_with_Googles_My_Search_History_Tool
| Effective Web Search with Googles My Search History Tool
You were looking for certain information on the web. After
several attempts using different words and phrases with your
favorite search engine, you finally have found the required
information but, as it happens, forgot to bookmark the pages. In
a few days when you needed to check out the same pages again, to
your utter dismay, you realized that you couldn't recall how you
searched out those pages. Sounds familiar? If you are like me,
you probably face this problem quite frequently!
Finding the right page link you are seeking from the browser's
history feature, out of hundreds of pages that you have visited
recently, is not easy either! More over, browser's history page
remembers where you have been as you browse the web for a
limited time only. Things may be a little easier if you use
Google Desktop search or similar tools from other search
engines, but again if you don't always use the same computer,
even this might not be of much help.
My Search History - a new Google feature
However, thanks to new "My Search History" feature from Google,
now you are able to overcome this difficulty. The service, which
is still at beta stage and released just recently, provides
complete search history of all the past searches made through
Google once you install it. The search histories are stored on
Google's servers, this enables you to access search histories
from any computer. From your search history page you are able to
make a query on the search history itself. On the history page
at the right side you can see the search words or phrases used
for making a query, time of the query made, pages visited
related to the query and the page link. At the left side, there
is a calendar to check out the search made by you on an earlier
date. It also shows how many searches you have done on a certain
day and how intense your search activity was on each day. A neat
feature, which will help you get rid of the problem mentioned in
the beginning of the article, will show you relevant search
results from your "My History Pages" along with the new search
results while you make a query. "This feature of Google Web
search enables you to find information you thought you lost",
Google claims on its site.
About the author:
shuth is the webmaster with 6 years experience in web design &
development. http://www.cybertionary.com is the new project by him which is provide information for
internet & computing terms. Also own.. http://www.shuth.com http://extreme-web-design.co
m
Effective Web Search with Googles My Search History Tool
You were looking for certain information on the web. After
several attempts using different words and phrases with your
favorite search engine, you finally have found the required
information but, as it happens, forgot to bookmark the pages. In
a few days when you needed to check out the same pages again, to
your utter dismay, you realized that you couldn’t recall how you
searched out those pages. Sounds familiar? If you are like me,
you probably face this problem quite frequently! Finding the
right page link you are seeking from the browser’s history
feature, out of hundreds of pages that you have visited
recently, is not easy either! More over, browser’s history page
remembers where you have been as you browse the web for a
limited time only. Things may be a little easier if you use
Google Desktop search or similar tools from other search
engines, but again if you don’t always use the same computer,
even this might not be of much help.
My Search History – a new Google feature
However, thanks to new “My Search History” feature from Google,
now you are able to overcome this difficulty. The service, which
is still at beta stage and released just recently, provides
complete search history of all the past searches made through
Google once you install it. The search histories are stored on
Google’s servers, this enables you to access search histories
from any computer. From your search history page you are able to
make a query on the search history itself. On the history page
at the right side you can see the search words or phrases used
for making a query, time of the query made, pages visited
related to the query and the page link. At the left side, there
is a calendar to check out the search made by you on an earlier
date. It also shows how many searches you have done on a certain
day and how intense your search activity was on each day. A neat
feature, which will help you get rid of the problem mentioned in
the beginning of the article, will show you relevant search
results from your “My History Pages” along with the new search
results while you make a query. “This feature of Google Web
search enables you to find information you thought you lost",
Google claims on its site.
How to install?
In order to add this feature go to the "My Search History" link
on your Google home page and search results pages, by clicking
the My Search History link on Google Labs, or by going directly
to http://www.google.com/searchhistory. If you ever registered
with any of Google’s services, i.e. Gmail, Newsgroups, Froogle,
etc. you may use same user name and password to install this
feature. If you don’t have account with Google as yet, don’t
worry unlike Gmail account you can go to the following page
https://www.google.com/accounts/NewAccount and create a new
account. Once you created an account, you can turn on “My Search
History”, which will add the link to your Google home page and
search results pages.
Is this feature something new?
This is actually not a new feature on the Internet. This service
of Google has striking similarity to the one already existed on
Meta Search tool www.a9.com. Other search engines like
www.askjeeves.com and little know www.findory.com also have some
thing similar incorporated to their systems. A9 also has a
feature called “Discover”, which along with your search results
recommends sites relevant to the query. The My Yahoo Search test
released in October also enables users to save, share and post
notes on their own search results.
Privacy issues
There is always a reason to be concerned when your Internet
activities are tracked and kept by any company. However, Google
has taken several steps so that a user can have total control on
how he exploits this service. First, you have to log on in order
to use this feature. Your log in status is visible all the time
on the Google home page. If you can see your account name on top
right side of the page, this means you are signed in. If you
don’t want certain searches to be tracked by Google, you have
two choices. Either you can suspend the service for a while by
clicking on the “pause” button or just log off from the service.
You can also erase search results from history page by clicking
on “Remove” link. Combination of all these mechanisms will allow
you to keep your searches private and protected. However, if you
are overly concerned about privacy, you better refrain from
using this feature.
Benefits
Most of Google’s features carry great values for users. The
personalization of search processes using “My Search History”
allows you to get a better search experience. It’s a significant
leap towards creating an ideal search system. The benefits of
this feature for Google are also enormous! Almost all of
Google’s revenue comes from search ads. Naturally, Google’s
ability to provide more refined search results to users will
allow vendors better targeting their market niche. They would
spend substantially more if they could show ads to users based
on their past search history. But, Google claims that at this
moment it is not planning to post any ads on your history pages.
No doubt, this is an interface that many of us have been waiting
for quite a while. However, its impact on the future of search
engines remains to be seen!
About the author:
Nowshade Kabir, is the founder, primary developer and present
CEO of Rusbiz.com – a Global B2B Exchange with solutions to
create e-catalog, Web store, business process management and
other features to run a business online. You can read various
articles written by Nowshade Kabir at http://ezine.rusbiz.com.
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