Google Web History could be better
Google has announced the launch of “Web History”. Anybody who reads Graywolf’s blog will know that this isn’t entirely new, and if you use this, you’re not a wearer of tinfoil hats. Using your search history helps Google give you customised results. But wait, there’s more!
Here’s an excerpt from the Official Google Blog’s announcement:
Today, we’re pleased to announce the launch of Web History, a new feature for Google Account users that makes it easy to view and search across the pages you’ve visited. If you remember seeing something online, you’ll be able to find it faster and from any computer with Web History. Web History lets you look back in time, revisit the sites you’ve browsed, and search over the full text of pages you’ve seen. It’s your slice of the web, at your fingertips.
How does Web History work? All you need is a Google Account and the Google Toolbar with PageRank enabled. The Toolbar, as part of your browser, helps us associate the pages you visit with your Google Account.
The key thing to notice is that, with the Google Toolbar installed, Google will monitor every webpage you visit, storing those URLs for you. We all know that Google could use this information to help “better their results”, but this is not the point right now.
I’m just counting the hours until Graywolf puts up a post about how bad this is. 
What would make enabling this a clincher for me? (Please see the update at the bottom)
How about being able to set up a Google Custom Search Engine (CSE) specifically for this that would automatically add your search history to the CSE. Then, if you need to find that little piece of info on some page you viewed in the last month, you can search for it. It wouldn’t be like using the default “Web History” dashboard, as this just seems to list the pages you’ve viewed, not the contents of those pages (obviously). So being able to search JUST the sites you’ve visited (even better, just the pages) would be ideal.
Personally, I don’t think it can be that hard to do, as there’s already an RSS feed listing the pages you’ve viewed.
UPDATE:
Before we go on, let me tell you the moral of the following story: Don’t just read the “press release”, read the Product Page as well.
Ok, here’s another excerpt from the actual “Web History” welcome page:
Search the full text of pages you’ve visited. Web History allows you to search across the web pages, images, videos and news stories you’ve viewed.
So, it looks like they do this already. Google obviously hires PHDs for a reason. 
