Dear LPG, 

As I have got older, even though I pride myself on having a place for everything in my home, I seem to lose all sorts of things that I forget to put back in their official places. I have lost count of the times I can’t find my keys when I am ready to leave the house. But now I find myself losing virtual and more literal things, and I would like to discuss finding some of those. 

This is a message that might be of value to some of those LPG readers who have a degree of IT knowledge. Having learned the trick, I feel the need to share it. 

I must admit to spending far too much time browsing the internet since lockdown. Having all that extra time on our hands gave so many of us older people nothing else to do but discover more about our tablets, laptops and mobile phones.   I never thought I would have any actual use for one, but that scenario gave so many of us oldies so much time that we had to fill it, and that is what I did with mine.

I have read so many stories where people, especially older ones, found out more about using electronic devices given as presents by their children. At the time, I refused to use mine until there was nothing else to do, but I know I am not the only convert. 

Once I learnt about video phoning, I moved on to find out all about the answers to the most searching questions that Google can offer, and now that I have worked out how to ask with my voice rather than having to text everything in on the screen, we talk all the time.

But have you ever found an interesting video or website that illustrates a subject which comes up in conversation a couple of days later? When you want to show a friend, you will find some information, but so often, trying to find the actual page that you found the first time can be one of the biggest frustrations. The chances are that you will never see that page again unless you have the mind to save it or send it on at the time.

I think that can be one of the most frustrating aspects of the internet's knowledge, but I came across a solution and a worrying fact to do with that subject.  

As I mentioned at the beginning of my message, this might be something that you need to get a little expert help with, but there is a list of everything you have accessed, which you can find quite quickly, and it gets even easier if you have a Gmail account. There must be similar ways when using other web browsing apps, but I concentrated on Google Chrome.   

I have found a few YouTube videos showing how to do this, and though you might need some expert help, it is surprisingly easy to use once you know how.  

The worrying question for me is, if you can see it, who else can?  

For me, the answer was always going to be ‘google it’, and so I did.  

The general answer is that you can delete your activity lists as quickly as you can search through them, and the internet says that while Google keeps the statistical information, your search details are not that important to them; however, I found a little more detailed information that might be of interest. 

KS, Crofton Park

KS shares some information about finding and deleting your Google search history…

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… and how long Google keeps your data for…

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…and LPG adds some information on today’s celebration…

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