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Google Search History

http://www.google.com/searchhistory
This is a brilliant new edition to the whole suite of features already offered by Google, which already includes Gmail, Froogle, Google Maps, Google Toolbar, Google Desktop Search, Google Alerts, and Google Groups as well as (through lesser affliation and aquiration) Blogger (which powers this blog), Orkut, Hello and Keyhole. It is a relatively simple tool which simply lists your Google Searches, that you made when signed into your Google Account. Gmail users all already have a Google Account and this new feature integrates with the existing features well, although a direct link from your Gmail Inbox would be nice.

It is of course a little over the top. And this is made clear to all users by the Search Feature in the service, through which you can search for your previous searches, which is basically Googling what you have already Googled. Useful? Perhaps.

All of this is summarised by a Slashdot user who says on the topic:

Wait.. so I can search for a search that I’ve searched for before?!?

and perhaps others can search through the searches that I’ve searched? Will I be able to search their searches of my searches?

whoa. my brain just exploded.

What I didn’t realise, is that this is not a new idea. There already is a feature to have My Yahoo! Search History, and it has to be said that it is better than what Google has to offer. You can add notes to the Searches that you save, and also by default searches are not automatically saved, you just click a link next to the result to do so, which I think is much better. They also make it sound a lot less stupid. You search “My Web” (pages that you have saved) rather than “Searching your Searches”, you can also block pages that you don’t want to appear leading to full personalisation. Even Ask Jeeves have already got a similar feature (”MyJeeves”), which is like a dumbed down version of Yahoos, but largely the same.

For once it seems that Google is playing catch up, and as Search Engline Lowdown (which is Sponsored by Ask Jeeves) writes:

why don’t they just call it MyGoogle and be done with it

It is all very out of the ordinary, but Google have a habit of coming out with features that blow the opposition to pieces, just like when Gmail was first placed in beta with 1000 MB to oppose the 2 MB Hotmail offered. Of course things have changed since then and now with Yahoo! Mail you get 1000 MB rather than 6, and at Hotmail storage is 250 MB from 2. So the competition between the search engines (and increasingly “portals”) only makes for better user services, and the way that Google does things also cheaper (who would pay for storage with Hotmail when more was availiable for free with Gmail, etc).

As can be seen from the list of features at the start, Google is loaded with tools, however to stay ahead of the game, it needs more. And they are all created in Google Labs.

See also: Google, Yahoo, MSN, Ask Jeeves, Google Features.

This entry was posted on Saturday, April 23rd, 2005 at 12:41 PM and filed under Uncategorized.
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