Erasing Your Google History

Q. I’m a fan of Google’s Chrome, but often when I start typing in the address box, I see links to old searches and sites I previously visited. How do I get rid of these old links?

A. Chrome stores a list of the sites you have visited during the last 90 days (unless you were using the incognito mode for private browsing). When you start typing something similar into the search box, you may see previously used URLs pop up. To delete this list, click the Menu icon in the upper-right corner of the Chrome toolbar and select History. On your History page, you can delete selected sites you have visited, or just click the Clear Browsing Data button to get an options box for erasing everything.

If you use Chrome or Google Search on other computers and gadgets while logged into a Google account, Google saves a list of your search queries and pages you previously visited on all devices. The company says it stores this information so it can provide better results and recommendations, but if you find it creepy, you can stop the data collection.

Point the browser to www.google.com/history and log in again if asked. On your History page, you can see your entire trail of Google searches across all devices (along with your usage charts and trends). From this page, you can delete some or all of your search history. You can also “pause” and stop Google’s search-saving at www.google.com/settings/accounthistory/search.

TIP OF THE WEEK If you are feeling nostalgic or just cannot remember what you were doing at the same time last year, check out Facebook’s “On This Day” feature, which shows you the photos and updates you posted to the site on the same date. To do the time travel, select the On This Day bookmark in the Apps area of your News Feed page or in the menu area of the Facebook mobile app. When logged into your account, you can also visit the past at facebook.com/onthisday.