Habitually Good

This is what happens to me all the time: I spend a nice amount of time searching for something by constructing better search queries and end up finding it; but then I forget to bookmark it and when I need it next, I need to search all over again. Ever have that happen to you?

Sure I can look into the browser history (search through the large number of pages that I view everyday). But a better way is to use Google Web History. If you have the Google toolbar installed, GWH will track where you visit and what you are searching for. If you don’t, then it will only track what you have been searching for (if you are using Google for searching that is).

How is it better than looking at your browser history?

First of all, it shows me the searches that I have performed. So, I can simply run that search again. So, if I know that I found it yesterday or day before, then I can look at the searches I did on that day and just find it again.

Second, it categorizes my searches. So if I know it was an image that I searched for, I can look at my image searches (which filters out the web search). It will even show me the thumbnails if I opened any image result for previewing.

Third, it groups together pages viewed from the same domain (which is way better than the browser which shows one line for every Url I visit (at least FireFox does)) in the history. This feature alone makes it much easier to navigate Web History.

Four, I can analyze my search habits (not much use, but a lot of fun). For example the image below show my hourly search stats since I turned on the Google Web History:

This clearly shows that I am searching most actively just after lunch. It also shows when I usually sleep (judging by the smaller number of queries that I have between 4 am to 9 am).

Of course there are many other small neat things that GWH offers and unless you are paranoid about Google capturing all this ‘private’ data, it is worth turning this on and visiting from time to time. It lets you remove data selectively and also offers the ability to clear the entier history whenever you want.

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