How to clear your Google search history

Posted on March 21, 2007 at 8:40 am

Make sure to read other posts from the Search History & Privacy series!

How to view recent search history for IE and Firefox browsers
13 ways to protect personal data from online fraud and identity theft
How to clear your Google search history

Need to clear your Google search history to keep your searches away from prying eyes? Or searching for something that you know would get you in trouble if someone found out? Well this will help you avoid being caught!

Clearing your Google search history is a fairly straight-forward procedure that anyone can perform. There are basically two ways that your searches are remembered in Windows: by the Google toolbar or by Internet Explorer.

When you browse to http://www.google.com/ and perform a search, you may notice that the text box remembers your last search or displays a list of previous searches when you click on it. This is not Google remembering your searches, but instead Internet Explorer. In order to clear out what IE has in it’s cache, follow this procedure:

1. Go to Tools, then Internet Options.

2. Under Browser History, click on Delete.

In the Delete Browsing History dialog, click Delete Forms. This will delete everything that you typed into any form on any web page, including the Google search box. If you want to delete other data, such as browsing history, etc. you can click those buttons individually or click Delete All to get rid of all cached data.

Now that you’ve gotten rid of the Internet Explorer cache, you need to make sure you delete the Google search history from the Google toolbar, if you have that installed.

Here’s how to clear the Google toolbar search history:

Click on the down down box in the Google toolbar where you type in your search query and at the bottom you’ll see a link called “Clear Search History“. Click on that and your searches are erased.

Remember though, if you have anything like Google Desktop or a similar program installed, it will record your searches. So be careful not to shoot yourself in the foot with desktop searching software!

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14 Responses to “How to clear your Google search history”

edge said on : June 13th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

Can you please help me? I did your first step and hit delete all on that thing, however I have google, but don’t that google toolbar installed. So how do I delete my google history? And how do I see my google history? please help me.

Jessica said on : September 9th, 2008 at 10:29 pm

thanks it worked:)

mike said on : October 18th, 2008 at 8:25 am

I cant find the tool bar you are referring to. I have Mozzila open but cant find the browser history.

home said on : October 25th, 2008 at 1:50 pm

did all steps. but search history in Youtube are still there??

fakhir said on : November 25th, 2008 at 3:21 am

Very very thank you for the tips.

precious said on : December 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 am

it worked!
nice teaching huh..

Biz said on : December 15th, 2008 at 6:05 pm

Hi! How do i clear my google search history on my ipod touch. Help will be greatly apreciated:)

Gizmo said on : January 19th, 2009 at 6:12 pm

FOR MOZILLA:

-Open Mozilla
-Go to the “Tools” tab
-Click on “Clear Private Data”
-”Clear Forms and Search History” is what you want to do, so single that out and click “Clear Private Data Now”
-Done! (Great for you know what!)

Gloria said on : January 25th, 2009 at 10:15 pm

How do I delete the history from my google toolbar, on my iPod touch?

ashok said on : March 30th, 2009 at 4:12 am

how to clear the history in linux operating system
?

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