Update to Google search
Google has announced an incentive for people willing to allow their Web History to be enabled by launching search history that follows you across all devices, so long as you are logged into Google. Some see the use of Web History as an inevitable step for Google, while others criticize Google for becoming more like Facebook regarding privacy issues, and others discuss the technical aspects of what the newly collected Web History feature means to users.
The carrot Google is dangling before users is convenience of having your mobile device know what you were searching on your computer which can be extremely useful for saving time recalling location information on the go that was previously searched for on your desktop.
Clicking the new “Recent” icon as pictured above will show you details about your recent search history regardless of what device you are logged into, but the company notes that it is particularly for places recently searched, not all search history.
Junichi Uekawa, Software Engineer at Google said in a statement, “We provide this new convenience feature for users who have Web History enabled and are logged into Google when doing their search. Start by searching for a place on your PC or other devices, then login to Google.com’s mobile homepage and check the Recent icon. Information about previously searched places will be available under the Recent icon for about a day”
The “Recent” icon shows information about recently search places, and swiping to the right shows more icons for other categories of places. While the obvious intention is to become your brain (so you don’t have to remember information searched here or there), and the less obvious intention is to incentivize users’ enabling of Web History.
