Browser History

Web browsing history refers to the list of web pages that a user has visited recently. It includes the information associated to pages such as page title and the time of visit that is recorded by web browser app. This is done in order to provide a Back button, so that it is faster and easier to load the pages when the user revisits them again at a later date.

For example, in Google Web History, the webpages of all the registered users are recorded and stored in the individual user histories, each of which are browse able and searchable by that user. When user needs to revisit that site after few days, it can be done by just opening the web history.

Web browser software itself will record the history of all the web pages the user visited. However, there are even some third-party services that can also record a user's web browsing history completely or partially. The user could install Google Toolbar, wherein all pages that the user visits while logged into Google on that computer may be recorded as well. One of the benefits is that user can review and search through their entire web browsing history on any PC.

Features of Browser history

In a Web browser, the browser history is a complete list of all the Web sites the computer has visited and that will be stored on the computer's memory for a pre-determined period.

• User can specify the number of days the computer can retain the Pages in its history using the browser's preferences
• Facilitates in easy retrieval and traversal of the information resources on the World Wide Web
• Hyperlinks present in the resources will enable the users to easily navigate their browsers to related resources
• The web sites lists in the browser’s history can be viewed by title, date, alphabetical order, time of day, address (URL), or number of repeat visits etc.

History can be used to backtrack where you have gone on the Web; so if the user doesn’t remember the address of a page they visited previous day, they can open the history and locate it quickly.

Limitations of Web Browser History

In cases when the user shares the computer with someone else, then their Internet Web history will be accessible to that person. This will have serious privacy implications. Hence, it is recommended to delete the web history records whenever not needed.