When you search using Google, you get more relevant, useful search results, recommendations, and other personalized features. By personalizing your results, we hope to deliver you the most useful, relevant information on the Internet.
In the past, the only way to receive better results was to sign up for personalized search. Now, you can get customized results whenever you use Google. Depending upon whether or not you're signed in to a Google Account when you search, the information we use for customizing your experience will be different:
Signed-in personalization: When you're signed in, Google personalizes your search experience based on your Web History. If you don't want to receive personalized results while you're signed in, you can turn off Web History and remove it from your Google Account. You can also view and remove individual items from your Web History.
Signed-out customization: When you're not signed in, Google customizes your search experience based on past search information linked to your browser, using a cookie. Google stores up to 180 days of signed-out search activity linked to your browser's cookie, including queries and results you click.
Because many people might search from a single computer, the browser cookie may be associated with more than one person's search activity. For this reason, we don't provide a method for viewing this signed-out search activity. If you don't want to receive customized results while you are signed out, you can turn off these search customizations.
Here's an illustration of the information we use in each case:
| Signed-in Personalized Search | Signed-out Personalized Search | |
|---|---|---|
| Where the data we use to customize is stored | In Web History, linked to your Google Account | On Google's servers, linked to an anonymous browser cookie |
| How far back we use search history | Indefinitely or until you remove it | Up to 180 days |
| What searches are used to customize | Only signed-in search activity, and only if you are signed up for Web History | Only signed-out search activity |
| How to turn off | Remove Web History from your Google Account | Disable these search customizations |
