Ask HN: Can one make a tool that safely searches content of my browsing history?

2 points by studentrob 10y ago ↗ HN

The more time I spend on the internet, the more I wish I could have a search tool that only searches pages I've visited.

I would even like to be able to search through Facebook content I've viewed. And, of course, I'd want this to be done locally to increase privacy and speed.

Does anyone have a hack for this?

I see a plugin on Chrome called "Full History Search" [1]. I do not trust anything other than a fully open source tool

I understand that there are privacy concerns with this, since you could be storing data locally that is otherwise not public on the internet.

I wonder if it could be done in a safe way. Thoughts?

[1] https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/full-history-search/finikongkpikdjdhfofcinijoidlikej?hl=en

1 comment

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AdmiralAsshat 10y ago ↗

I wish I could have a search tool that only searches pages I've visited

To clarify: if you read an article on ArsTechnica, are you saying you only want your search to include that specific article on ArsTechnica that you previously read, or the site ArsTechnica on the whole?

If you only want to search through your history (i.e. the former in the above), the major browsers (Chrome, Firefox, etc.) have a built-in search bar for your history file. You could use that to search only for pages that you've previously visited.