Customize Google to Work for You
Did you know that you can personalize your Google experience with more relevant search results, stored search histories and bookmarks, and alerts about new items likely to be of interest to you?
Signing Up for a Google Account and Modifying Google Services
The first step is to sign up for a free Google account. Click on Sign In in the top right corner of the Google homepage <www.google.com>, then click on Create an Account Now. You may use any email address; Gmail is not required.
Once you have an account and are signed in, you will see new links in the top right corner of your Google homepage. Click on My Account to view and edit your current personalized settings.
Web History and Personalized Search Results
Searches executed while you are signed into your Google account are stored in your Search History. You may rerun any search, anytime, from any computer to quickly retrieve that website you found last week but whose address you forgot.
Google uses Search History to personalize future search results. Based on the words you searched and the links you followed results for new searches will be displayed with the sites judged most relevant to you at the top. The longer your search history, the more personalized your search results become.
To view your past searches, click on Search History at the top right corner of the Google homepage. Browse through your history chronologically, search within it, or use the calendar provided to link to the search history for a specific day. Items in your search history can be deleted easily by selecting Remove Items from the menu on the left. This menu also has a link, Interesting Items, which recommends searches, images, and gadgets, that may be of interest to you based on your search history.
The Search History feature may be disabled on the My Account page. To learn more about privacy on Google’s Search History, review the information at: <www.google.com/history/intl/en/privacyfaq.html>.
Google Bookmarks
Bookmarks are similar to Favorites in Internet Explorer, but have the unique capability of being accessible from any computer with Web access. You can add and manage your bookmarks easily through your Google Account.
Google Alerts
If you find yourself running the same topic search in Google over and over, you can save time with a Google Alert. A Google Alert sends you email with new items Google has indexed from the web based on your saved search. Before saving a search as an alert, test it first in Google to make sure that it retrieves relevant results. Full instructions for saving, editing, and deleting alerts are at: <www.google.com/alerts/faq.html>.
For more information about Google Accounts and a complete listing of the available services visit: <www.google.com/support/accounts/>.
--Barb Folb
