What is browser history? Definition and brief

Web browser history is the list of web sites that you have most recently visited. The web page URLs in the history are categorized by date and in most modern browsers you can specify the number of days for which the list is maintained - we'll look into this in detail below.

Why do web browsers maintain a list of recently visited web sites and how is it useful?

Having the browser keep a record of your online activity is a good idea. Consider a scenario when you visited a web page but forgot to note down the address or bookmark it; you can quickly get it from the browsing history, assuming that it's still in there. Browsers like Google Chrome also provide a search field in which you can type a query and hunt for the elusive web address quickly. This, as you can understand, is a great time saver because you don't need to go through each link manually.

Get the list of web pages in the browser history

You can quickly have the browser show the list of web addresses in the history. Here is how you do it in the five most popular web browsers:

Internet Explorer
Click on the Favorites "Star" icon and choose "History". By default the web address in the list will be sorted by date but you can change this by selecting the appropriate option from the drop down. You can also click on the small arrow to the right which opens the web browser history in its own panel. A search feature is also available.

Firefox
Click on "History" from the top menu and select "Show in Sidebar". The entire list will be displayed in a panel to the left along with a search field. To sort this list, click on the "View" button and choose an option.

Google Chrome
Click on the "Wrench" icon and choose "History". The list of all web pages you've visited will be displayed in a new tab window with a search field.

Apple Safari
Choose "Show All History" from the "History" drop down menu to display all the web addresses you've visited which are categorised by date.

Opera
To bring up the list, click "Tools" -> "History". You can search this list or sort it in using various criteria.

Change History settings - specify the number of days for which you want the web browser to maintain the list of web sites

• Internet Explorer
  Choose "Tools" -> "Internet Options" and click on the "Settings " link in the History section under the "General" tab. Enter the number of days in the text field.
• Mozilla Firefox
  Click on "Tools" and select "Options". Move to the "Privacy" section in the pop-up window and then enter the number of days in the "Remember visited page for the last..." text field.
• Apple Safari
  "Edit" -> "Preferences" -> "General" tab. Now select the option from the "Remove history items" drop down.
• Opera
  In the pop-up that's displayed when you choose "Tools" -> "Preferences", move to the "Advanced" tab and then click on the "History" link to the left. Select the number of web addresses that you want the browser to store.

Delete browser history

• Internet Explorer
  Internet Explorer: "Tools" -> "Delete Browsing History" -> "Delete History..."
• Firefox
  "Tools" -> "Clear Private Data". Check "Browsing History.
• Google Chrome
  Click the Wrench icon and select "Clear Browsing Data". In the pop-up, put a checkmark in front of "Clear browsing history".
• Apple Safari
  From the "History" drop down menu, select "Clear History".
• Opera
  "Tools" -> "Delete Private Data". Now click on the small arrow beside "Detailed Options" and make sure the "Clear history of visited pages" and "Clear history of file transfers" have a checkmark before proceeding to delete the browser history.