These days, the Internet is our primary source of information. Each time we visit a website or search the internet, our browsing history and search history are saved, both on the computer and online.
Over time, the accumulation of these files may pose a security risk and slow down your computer.
In this article, we will explain how to delete browsing history and search history.
What is browsing history
Browsing history is a stored list of web pages you have visited. This means every time you visit a website or download a file, information about this action is recorded.
Web browsing history is tied to your web browser. The browsing history is stored on your computer, and it is possible to synchronize it between multiple devices. For example, if you visit the cnn.com website on your iMac and then visit msn.com on your MacBook, then your browser will keep the information about both visits in its browsing history.
If you want to clear your web browser’s history, including the web pages you have visited, caches, cookies, saved passwords, etc., you will need to remove the web history files from your disk.
What is web search history
Web search history is a stored list of search queries you have made via a search engine.
The search history is stored in a search engine, such as Google, and it is usually tied to your Google account. In short, Google search history is stored on the Internet, so if you want to clear search history, you need to go online and do this in your Google account.
Contents:
1. How to delete Google search history
2. How to clear browsing history on Chrome
3. How to clear browsing history in Firefox
4. How to clear browsing history on Safari
5. How to clear browser cache
How to delete Google search history
Google is the most popular search engine and the preferred choice of most users for surfing the Internet. For this reason, we begin this tutorial on clearing search history with the example of Google.
Complete the following steps to delete search history from Google:
- Open the Google search engine in your web browser
- Click on your profile photo in the top right corner and select Manage your Google Account.
- In the new webpage that appears, select the Data & personalization section from the menu on the left.
- Find the Activity and timeline section and click My Activity to view and delete search history.
- Within the My Google Activity webpage, select Delete activity by from the menu on the left.
- Choose All Time and click on the Delete button to entirely delete Google search history.
Now the search history stored within Google has been deleted.
Please note that the search history is also stored in browsing history. Keep on reading to learn how to clear browsing history.
How to clear browsing history on Google Chrome
Google is working to ensure the network security of its users, so you can rely on the Chrome browser. But, keep in mind that it’s a good habit to clear your browsing history from time to time to protect your private information.
To clear history on Google Chrome, take the following steps:
- Open the Google Chrome browser.
- Go to Menu → Chrome → Clear Browsing Data.
- Select All Time and mark the checkboxes to remove history, caches, passwords, cookies, and other unneeded files.
- Then, click on the Clear data button to entirely clear history from your Chrome browser.
Read also “How to clear cache in Google Chrome.”
How to clear browsing history in Firefox
Firefox is a popular open-source web browser, developed by the Mozilla Foundation. If you don’t want the Firefox browser to keep a complete history of all the information you have typed into the search bar, as well as into forms displayed on web pages, then you should manually remove this data.
To clear history in Firefox, do as follows:
- Open the Firefox browser.
- Go to Menu → Firefox → Preferences.
- Select Privacy & Security → History → Clear History at Firefox preferences.
- To totally clear the Firefox browser’s history, select Everything and tick all the checkboxes to get rid of history, logins, cookies, cache, etc. Then, click on the Clear Now button.
How to clear browsing history on Safari
Safari is the web browser created by Apple, which comes preinstalled on Apple devices such as Macs, iPhones and iPads.
To clear history on Safari, complete the following steps:
- Open the Safari browser.
- Go to Menu → Safari → Clear History…
- To completely clear the Safari browser’s history, select All History and click on the Clear History button.
Using this method, you can remove the history of web pages you’ve visited, your recent searches, web page icons, items you’ve downloaded, websites that have asked for your location, etc.
How to clear browser cache
Browser caching helps you quickly open recently visited pages without having to reload them. However, caches are stored in your computer and take up precious disk space.
You can find web caches on your disk and manually delete them, but it will take some time. Therefore, we recommend using the special application, App Cleaner & Uninstaller, regularly to easily delete browser caches.
Follow these steps to clear browser cache on your Mac:
- Launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
- Find your web browsers in the list of apps.
- Select caches of the browsers and click on the Remove button.
- Review the service files you want to delete.
- Click on the Remove button to completely clear browser cache on your Mac.
With the App Cleaner & Uninstaller application, you can safely delete these unneeded files from your computer in just a few clicks. Moreover, if you want to uninstall a web browser completely, including its history, caches, logs and other service files you can do that with App Cleaner.
How to remove a web browser completely
- Launch App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
- Select the web browser you want to remove and all its service files will be selected automatically.
- Click on the Uninstall button.
- Review the app and the related service files and click Remove.
- Empty the Bin to uninstall the web browser on your Mac totally.
Using App Cleaner & Uninstaller, you can completely remove unneeded applications and their service files to get enough free space on your Mac and make it more productive. Also, you can use the app to clear applications caches, log, cookies.
You can download App Cleaner & Uninstaller from the Nektony official website for free.
