Google Betas "My Search History" Which Smacks of Big Brother

Google has announced "My Search History" a beta that lets users see all their past searches and results. "This feature of Google web search enables you to find information you thought you lost," says Google. Too much like Big Brother sniffing around my stall. And it's too easy to imagine advertisers torturing me with ads based on my search history.

Michael Leddtke at Associated Press says it "could prove as embarrassing as it is helpful." Pam Dixon, executive director of the World Privacy Forum recommends that people who want to keep track of all their searches use a notebook. "It would be a lot more private and a lot less risky."

Charlene Li of Forrester Research says she doubts Google's latest feature will have mass appeal. "I don't think this is going to be very important to the average person," Li said. "Most people are kind of paranoid, so they are going to be wondering, 'Why should I give all my information to Google?'"

I am trying out Copernic's free Desktop Search, which searches my computer or the Web. It's thorough, but I dislike the way it shows results. Windows Explorer seems to do as good a job and it produces clearer results.

However, I am completely dependent on Onfolio, which lets me keep Web pages or snippets or links in folders that I create and can easily annotate and access. It also lets me read RSS news feeds, collect and organize online content and publish to email, blogs and web sites.

The results of both of these programs reside on my computer. Right where I want them.

You have to be logged into your Google account for the search history to be activated, so just stay logged out if you don't want to use My Search History.

You can also be logged in to Gmail and logged out of Google, so it's really not a big deal for those who don't want to have their searches tracked. I'm not seeing this one to be as intrusive as the autolinks in the toolbar -- which actually replaces content on websites.

I should have mentioned that you have to be logged in. However, it'the idea I basically object to. Just sounds too 1984.