Oct 8th, 2013 at 03:14 PM

Web browsing history

In computing, the web browsing history refers to the list of web pages a user has visited recently—and associated data such as page title and time of visit—which is recorded by web browser software as standard for a certain period of time. Web browser software does this in order to provide the user with a Back button and/or a History list, to go back to pages they have visited previously, rather than relying on the user to remember where they have been on the web. In addition to the web browser software itself, third-party services can also record a user's web browsing history (completely or partially). For example, in Google Web History, the clicks of registered users are recorded and stored in individual user histories, each of which are browsable and searchable by that user (this is in addition to the click-tracking Google records for its own internal purposes, such as advertising click tracking). If the user installs the Google Toolbar, all pages that the user visits while logged into Google on that computer may be recorded as well. A potential benefit to the user is that they can review - and search through - all of their web browsing history on any computer, but this can have privacy implications.