What is Browsing History?

Browsing History: What It Is and How It Can Be Managed or Deleted

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by Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera has been a tech journalist since 2007. He has 25+ years' experience as a programmer and QA leader and several Microsoft certifications.
Updated February 15, 2017

Browsing history is comprised of a record of Web pages that you have visited in past browsing sessions, and typically includes the name of the Web page/site as well as its corresponding URL.

This log is stored by the browser on your device's local hard drive and can be utilized for a number of purposes which include providing on-the-fly suggestions as you type a URL or website name into the address bar.

In addition to browsing history, other private data components are also saved during a browsing session. Cache, cookies, saved passwords, etc. are sometimes referred to under the browsing history umbrella. This is somewhat misleading and can be confusing, as each of these browsing data components has their own purpose and format.

How Can I Manage My Browsing History?

Each Web browser has its own unique interface which allows you to manage and/or delete browsing history from your hard drive. The following tutorials show you how this is done in some of the most popular browsers.

How Can I Stop Browsing History From Being Stored?

In addition to being able to delete your browsing history, most browsers also provide a private browsing mode which -- when active -- ensures that this history is automatically cleared at the end of the current browsing session. The following tutorials detail these special modes in several major browsers.