Clearing Google Searches

Author:        Christopher Breen (mac911@macworld.com)

Source:       Macworld - Mac 911 Tip of the Week

Date:           May 1, 2006

Reader James is concerned about what his Google search history might say about his browsing habits. He writes: "I'd like to delete specific, saved Google search entries without having to reset Safari. Is there a way to delete such cached entries individually?"

Here a couple of mass-clearing techniques I have in hand. The first is to click the magnifying glass icon in Safari's Google search field and choose Clear Recent Searches. This prevents prior searches from appearing as auto fill entries. Firefox includes a similar feature. Just Control-click on the Google search field and choose Clear Search History.

To complete the cleansing of your Google searches, open Safari's preferences, click the AutoFill tab, and click the Edit button next to the Other Forms entry. Choose .google.com from the sheet that appears and click Remove. This zaps any Google auto fills; even those that appear when you visit the real Google site rather than conduct Google searches from Safari's Google field.

If you're concerned about your browsing habits becoming public knowledge, I urge you to use Safari's Private Browsing feature (found under the Safari menu). With Private Browsing switched on, Web pages won't be added to Safari's history, items will be automatically removed from Safari's Downloads window, no auto fill entries are created, and searches aren't added to the Google search field.

But that doesn't specifically address James' question. When I first tried to answer James at http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/mac911/  I noted that I was unaware of a method for cherry-picking and clearing select Google searches. Reader Peter Weber shows the way:

"Using the Property List Editor from the Developer Tools, open ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Safari.plist, and you'll find recent searches listed under the RecentSearchStrings property list."

Just select each entry you'd like to remove and click Property List Editor's Delete button. Close the window, click Save in the sheet that appears, and the entries you deleted will no longer appear among Safari's recent Google searches.

Pretty? Hardly. But I wanted a way and Peter provided it.