Google Brings New Controls for Search History and Personalization

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Google now lets you control search history and personalized recommendations independently. The company brings two separate settings: Search Services History and Personalized Recommendations. These options are currently rolling out to all eligible users over the coming weeks.

You can now independently manage history and recommendations

While Web & App Activity and Search Personalization options already let you save history and personalized recommendations, the new settings aim to make things easier to understand. Note that the previous settings are not being removed and will continue to “control activity collection and personalization for some other Google services”.

Speaking of Search Services History, it allows Google to save a user’s activity across Search services. These include searches, visited pages, and generative AI responses. It can also store related info such as general location and content users interact with, like images, files, and audio/video recordings. These come from tools such as Google Lens, voice search, and more.

The saved history helps you revisit past searches and get personalized recommendations and ads. Note that Google also uses your history to train generative AI models to improve its service, though it disconnects data from your account before doing this. You can turn Search Services History on or off from this page.

As for Personalized Recommendations, this setting aims to improve your experience in Search services. When this option is turned on, Google can use your Search Services History, account information, and other activity across Google apps and sites to show personalized recommendations.

For example, if you often search for topics like tennis, Google may prioritize tennis-related results. This setting can also curate Google Search and News App feeds based on the topics you interact with most. It may also use general location information from past searches to improve location-based relevance.

Furthermore, you may get personalized AI responses that match your interests or previous searches. If you want to manage the Personalized Recommendations setting, head to this page.

Written by

Binay Konwar

Binay Konwar started his blogging journey in 2014 and has since written plenty of tech articles. At present, he is working as a News Writer at SammyGuru, covering everything about Samsung. He holds a Master's degree in Mathematics, but his real passion lies in tech and writing. In his free time, he enjoys playing chess and watching movies.

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