Google Shows Suggestions from Your Search History

When you create a Google account, Google enables an option that saves all your queries and the results you clicked on. The service is called Web History and it can be extended to all the web pages you visit if you install Google Toolbar.

Web History has many uses, but Google has barely scratched the surface by offering some basic recommendations and trends. Google decided to personalize the suggestions offered when you type a query on Google's homepage by adding searches from your history. Like in Firefox's search box, the historical queries are displayed at the top, but the major difference is that Firefox saves the searches on your computer, while Google saves them in your account.

In the screenshot below, you can see the suggestions provided by Google after typing [gm] in the search box: there are 5 suggestions from my search history (all related to Gmail) and 5 popular queries from Google Suggest.


Google doesn't provide a way to disable the suggestions from your search history, so your options are to log out, disable query suggestions from the preferences page or delete the web history.

Update: I don't see this feature in all my accounts, so it's not available to everyone.

How Many Times Have You Searched Google?

While it's difficult to estimate your number of searches, Google Web History shows the total number of searches performed when you were logged in. The service was launched in April 2005, but my account shows data from December 2005.

Google Web History is enabled by default when you create a Google account and it records your searches, the search results you click on and your browsing history, but the last feature is opt-in.


In 2003, Google tested a counter that displayed the number of searches, but that feature didn't go live. "The counter is displayed at the bottom of Google's home page, and shows both a numeric count and a color bar to represent the frequency of your searching. (...) Beyond being an interesting gimmick, what's the purpose of the counter? Though Google has removed the counter FAQ page, its answer to the question What do I win was the zen-like There is no winning. There is only self-awareness. The search is endless."