JoeSchmidt.com: How much do you Google?

Posted on April 21, 2006 at 12:47 AM

Just about one year ago today, the Google personalized homepage started recording your Google search history while you were logged into their site. For some that might be a scary proposition but for this blog, eh, not so much. Here at JoeSchmidt.com we throw caution to the wind, I figure they've got enough data on me now between this blog, my gmail account, and Google Calendar why not throw a few more megabytes of data onto the pile.

Though I have to say, the Search History is a nice feature. Not only does it record what search terms you queried but it also keeps track of the links you clicked on (if any) in the results for each query. And of course it wouldn't be Google unless they made your entire history searchable, which makes it easy to go back in time to search for something from the past.

So, how much did I Google in one year's time?

6357 Google search queries in one year.

Yeah that's right. I used Google Six Thousand Three Hundred and Fifty Seven times last year. And that doesn't even account for the times I used Google while searching on someone else's computer or if I wasn't logged in to my Google homepage. So it's probably safe to say the actual number could be pushing close to 7000.

Let me break it down for you a little more.

That's an average of 17.4 unique searches a day. Every day. For an entire year.

If I had a nickel for every time I used Google last year I'd have $317.85. (not even enough money to buy one share of GOOG)

And to make matters worse, they give you a month-to-month graphical break down of how much you searched each day. So you can visually see how much time you wasted.

Hold on, there's more. They also give you Trends, which lists your top repeat search queries. Also, they provide a bar graph which shows the number of Google searches you performed by month, or by each hour of the day.

Who the hell uses Google at 4am? Apparently this blog does.

Well I guess it's that time. Let me stand up here and clear my throat.

*ahem* ... *cough*... *cough*

pffft, pffft.

Is this thing on?

Uhh, Hi. My name is Joe. And I'm a Googleholic.

Update #1

This post hit the frontpage of digg.com last Saturday and generated quite a few comments. Here is a link so you can check out what others are saying:

http://www.digg.com/links/How_much_do_you_Google_in_one_year_

If you like this post, give it a digg.

Update #2

How to enable or disable your Google Personalized Search History

A lot of people in the comments wondered how to enable/disable the search history. I've included the following instructions.

If you don't see the link to view your search history in the upper right hand corner of your Google Personalized Homepage, then you need to enable it. Go to www.google.com/searchhistory and login to your Google account. Once you do the search history will be enabled.

If you have the personalized search history enabled and you wish to disable it, then go to your Google accounts page and login to your Google account. On the left, click Delete Personalized Search under Delete Account. You should then see a window like this:

deleting personalized search confirmation

Now, enter your password, click the check box, and then hit the "Remove Personalized Search" button.

For more information, please refer to the Google Personalized Search FAQ.

Permalink | Comments (44) | post to del.icio.us | submit to Digg

Comments

9590 since my registration last April. That doesn't count a lot of mysearches on other computers or when I'm not logged in... I can't wait to hit that 10,000 mark.

Posted by: Ran | April 22, 2006 07:17 PM

*gasp*, almost 8000.. I really need to get a life ;)

Kiltak
[Geeks Are Sexy] Tech. News

Posted by: [GEEKS ARE SEXY] Tech. News | April 22, 2006 09:58 PM

I've got you beat! I've got 800+ every month.

Posted by: Jesse Donat | April 22, 2006 10:51 PM

7948

Posted by: Paul Williams | April 22, 2006 10:54 PM

Alright, good. Few searches on major holidays like Christmas and New Year's... meaning you probably have a life ;)

Posted by: Jason | April 22, 2006 10:56 PM

"Total searches: 25301" for me. Do I win a prize? :)

Posted by: Gary King | April 22, 2006 10:56 PM

3103... Not as high as you guys, but still a moderate amount. Guess I should play dumb and search more stuff!

Posted by: Mike Haugland | April 22, 2006 11:04 PM

great!

Posted by: kvssachin | April 22, 2006 11:15 PM

I didn't even know that google tracks it for that period of time. Kind of creepy if you ask me...

Andy A
CTO
MEDIAFLL LLC / Collaboradate.com
htt://www.collaboradate.com

Posted by: Andy A | April 22, 2006 11:16 PM

For the last 6 months I've searched 3,496 times. Not too bad, if I do say so myself. :-)

Posted by: Jay | April 22, 2006 11:24 PM

google makes me =)

Posted by: Eric | April 22, 2006 11:37 PM

I am well over 15k.....
Hi,
My name is Adam, and I'm a googleholic. Well... not really, I was sent here by the court after I caused a car crash trying to google something on my PDA while driving......

Posted by: Adam Jacob Muller | April 22, 2006 11:50 PM

I'm guessing I do on average 30+ searches a day. I don't really use Google Personalized homepages though, and rarely "Logged In" so I don't have an official count.

/needs life.

Posted by: Robert Accettura | April 22, 2006 11:52 PM

wow only 2200 since april.

Posted by: Matt | April 23, 2006 12:04 AM

1,263 searches and counting...

Posted by: Gilberto J Perera | April 23, 2006 12:14 AM

I'm up to 4600 Google searches, but I've only had the personalized search / search history for 7 months now. So if I continue at this rate, I'll hit 7,800+ by a year :D

Posted by: No3rdW | April 23, 2006 01:00 AM

I can't find where to find this functionality =/ Is it a module you add to your personal google page?

Posted by: Marlun | April 23, 2006 01:29 AM

3600 in 7 months on one of 3 computers. So 4500-5000 on the others.

Posted by: Tim Swanson | April 23, 2006 02:39 AM

Is there a Trackback URL for this entry ??

Posted by: Thilak | April 23, 2006 02:43 AM

I haven't had personalised search turned on.. I started "using" it 23 days ago, now I have 722 searches..

Posted by: Paul W | April 23, 2006 03:30 AM

google should pay you:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4780648.stm

Posted by: foobar | April 23, 2006 04:08 AM

Total searches: 13471 do I get a medal or what?

Posted by: Karoly Negyesi | April 23, 2006 05:25 AM

"you can visually see how much time you wasted"
I don't think searching is a waste of time

Posted by: a | April 23, 2006 06:14 AM

LOL, I have 672 queries in ten days.

Posted by: Haochi | April 23, 2006 09:23 AM

Interesting stats. Looking at it the other way around, suppose internet companies eventually move towards micropayments. So, if google cost 10c per search, then your annual google bill would run to $317.85.

Posted by: digitalsean | April 23, 2006 09:34 AM

I can't find where to find this functionality =/ Is it a module you add to your personal google page?

http://www.google.com/searchhistory/?hl=en

Posted by: Teelie | April 23, 2006 09:36 AM

Is it the case that you only get this when signed in? Say when you are using GMail?

Posted by: Jud | April 23, 2006 11:04 AM

I have a question. I've been using Google's personalized homepage for quite a while, but when I went to search history, I pretty much had none. Someone mentioned something about "turning on" personalized search. How exactly does personalized search relate to your personalized Google homepage? Mine seem to have no link whatsoever.

Posted by: K | April 23, 2006 12:52 PM

A mere 57 searches. (I use far better search engines than Google. It serves only as a last resort.)

Posted by: SpamMagnet | April 23, 2006 01:00 PM

How do you get the graphs to appear?

Posted by: Vetes | April 23, 2006 01:39 PM

Excellent, I am not alone -- 5082 since May 2005!

Posted by: Diane Cunningham | April 23, 2006 06:14 PM

5458 great!

http://www.gulp.com.br

Posted by: Claudio | April 23, 2006 10:38 PM

"So you can visually see how much time you wasted."

Why do you say using a search engine equates to wasting time?

Posted by: John | April 23, 2006 10:40 PM

John,

Using a search engine isn't wasting time, but if you look at what time of the day I used Google you'll notice that 1/3 of all my searches took place between the hours of 11pm and 4am.
Some may argue that I should have been in bed sleeping vs. staying up using Google. I thought it was an interesting visual of how one's time is spent.

I guess it was more of a tongue-in-cheek comment that anything.

Posted by: joeschmidt | April 23, 2006 11:17 PM

Total searches: 10249 - No surprise to me, I live, work, and play on the Internet.

Posted by: Cynthia-ga | April 24, 2006 05:22 AM

Cool. Pixel art.

(Squint at the calendar graphic)

Who out there is up for deliberately searching a certain number of times on particular days to create secret coded messages / space invaders etc etc ...

Posted by: Martium | April 26, 2006 02:31 AM

Should I be scared? I SWEAR BY Google, even though its results are not necessarily the most relevant.

It's time to explore other options. Or is it?

Posted by: Michal | April 26, 2006 06:04 PM

Today, Apr 28
Total searches: 10306

That's around 1 year of searches I think, since my stats start @ 21st April 2005

Posted by: Mark Hutton | April 28, 2006 01:21 AM

Boy do I feel inadequate...2697

Posted by: Josh | April 29, 2006 11:39 PM

Has your color scale just changed?
1-10, 11-20, 21-40, 41+
Is now how mine reads, anyone else seen this?

Posted by: Bob | May 1, 2006 08:59 PM

can u tell me where this search history feature is coz i cant find it?