I recently stumbled on what I think may be one of the hottest features of Google Chrome. History search!

When I installed Chrome on my MacBook Pro, Firefox was my primary browser. During the installation process of Chrome, you are asked if you want to import bookmarks, history, etc from another browser. I said yes to copy over my bookmarks and history from Firefox. This gives you the power of Google search on your browsing history.

This isn’t really anything “new”, other browsers have been doing history and providing search on your history for ages, but not with this type of interface, speed or accuracy! I was able to go back as far as Sunday – September 20, 2009. I just opened Firefox to confirm the depth of the history settings (waited 30 seconds for it to open) and it seems they took that level of control away. Now, it seems, you only have the choice of recording or not recording history. My guess is the range is something like 90 days. Oh well.

A useful hotkey (Cmd + Y) opens the Chrome history manager where you get complete information on your browsing history.

Keep in mind that the History page doesn’t store pages from secure websites, those you’ve visited in incognito mode, or those you’ve deleted from your browsing history.