Google Offers Users The Option To Download Their Search History

There are many reasons why you would want to keep your Google search history to yourself. After all, this type of data contains everything you have searched for and over a long period of time. Whether it is looking for a new job while at work or trying to find out information on any personal circumstances you might have. Keeping that data safe and to yourself is probably high on the agenda of many internet users.

Well, in spite of the more minor cosmetic changes that users are seeing recently to the way in which Google search looks, it also looks like they have been making some changes to the way in which your search data is stored. More specifically, it seems Google are making some changes to the level of control (and what you can do) with your search results. It seems users are now able to download a copy of their search results data and actually keep the copy stored offline. To be able to access and download a copy, users simply have to go to their Account History. From here, the small settings icon (cog) in the top right corner will include the option to “Download”. Once downloaded the data will be stored in a zip file and located within the user’s Google Drive account. From here, there is nothing stopping the user from pulling the file from Drive and keeping a copy offline. To make sure it is the user who is downloading their content, Google will also send an email to the registered email account advising of the download of data.

In fact, according to Venture Beat (‘via’ link below), this is not actually a new feature. They received confirmation from Google that the feature was quietly rolled out back in January of this year. Although, it seems to only have been noticed (source link below) in the last few days. Therefore, in spite of the feature being new to most users, it has been available for some time. Either way, the introduction of the feature seems to suggest Google are offering users much more control of how they use and have access to the information kept on their searches. Of course, whether any particular user will want to download and keep a hard copy of their searches, is another matter completely. Either way though, if you do want to, then now you can.