Bing Search History Offers Multi-Layer User Control

Dennis Faas's picture

Whether you are a university student using your laptop in residence or an employee surfing the Internet at the office, closely controlling your online history is crucial in keeping your identity safe and your privacy intact.

According to Sree Kamireddy, Program Manager for Microsoft Bing, very few people are actually aware of the Bing Search History control options that are offered through the "decision engine". The switches offer a safer level of privacy control which is particularly useful if your PC or laptop falls into the wrong hands.

The On / Off Switch

Online search history can be turned on and off right on the search results page. If you intend to perform a search and do not want to remember it as part of your history, simply click "Turn Off" and new searches are no longer remembered. If you ever decide to re-build your search history, click "Turn On" and the search history will once again be saved. The only way to override this feature is by clearing the browser cookies.

Transparency

Clicking "See All" will offer a complete view of the history data that Bing is storing for you. For this release, you will find all queries made using online search and the sites clicked associated with each query. (Source: webpronews.com)

Control

Bing search history is designed with multiple layers of control. Bing users can remove their entire search history right on the search results page or on the homepage by clicking "Clear All". For even more control, users can delete individual queries or sites from their history by clicking "See All" and then removing individual items from the history section.

Queries Removed from Search History

The best part of all is that once a query is gone, it will not reappear later in the search history section. (Source: arisyulianta.com)

As it stands, Bing search history is retained for four weeks at a time.

Kamireddy promised that Bing will be keeping tabs on customer feedback to see what additional information might help make search history more useful, and how to better expose it to customers.

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