Therefore, more information about the users could encourage advertisers to pay higher prices. Advertisers decide how much they are willing to pay based on the target audience of the websites. It is a system that automatically bids up the price for presenting advertisements on certain websites. Real-time bidding(RTB) is the method used behind targeted advertising. One research shows that targeted advertising doubles the conversion rate of classical online advertising. A typical example is a user receiving advertisements on shoes when browsing other websites after searching for shoes on shopping websites. Targeted advertising means presenting the user with advertisements that are more relevant to one based on one's browsing history. īrowsing history is not recorded when using the private browsing mode provided by most browsers. īrowser extensions such as History Trends Unlimited for Google Chrome (desktop version) allow the indefinite local storage of browsing history, exporting into a portable file, and self-analysis of browsing habits and statistics. An indefinite history file named Archived History was once recorded, but has been removed and automatically deleted in version 37, released in September 2014.

Mozilla Firefox (desktop version) records history indefinitely by default inside a file named places.sqlite, but automatically erases the earliest history upon exhausted disk space, while Google Chrome (desktop version) stores history for ten weeks by default, automatically pruning earlier entries.

The retention span of browsing history varies per internet browser. Browsers also utilize it to enable autocompletion in their address bar for quicker and more convenient navigation to frequently visited pages. Locally stored browsing history can facilitate rediscovering lost previously visited web pages of which one only has a vague memory in mind, or pages difficult to find due to being located within deep web.

Firefox browser history location