Tuesday, April 21, 2015
Google has now started allowing users to download their search history. As spotted by the Google Operating System blog over the weekend, users need to log into their Google account in any browser, visit the 'Web & App Activity' section, click on the cog button placed at top right corner, and select 'Download'. After clicking, users would get a warning and some pointers like the history archive will be accessible through Google Drive, do not download the search history on public computers, and to set up a two-step verification process. On proceeding, a link to Google Drive will be mailed to the user via the Gmail account, from where the archive of JSON files can be downloaded on the PC as a zip document. Google says a copy of your history will be saved securely to the Takeout folder in Google Drive. The search giant adds that depending on the amount of data, more than one file may be present in the Takeout folder.
It has been noted that the search history will be available from the time when the feature has been switched on in the Google account. The feature comes as a part of Google's Takeout policy, which was launched back in 2011 to let users move their data out of Google.
On a related note, Google from Tuesday rolled out an important change in its mobile search algorithms to help users discover more mobile-friendly content. Mobile-friendly websites will now receive a higher ranking in mobile search results. The change was first announced in February. The company had before this started displaying mobile friendly labels for websites in mobile search results back in November.
