
Ruin My Search History - gadtfly
http://ruinmysearchhistory.com/
======
mmastrac
Spoiler alert! From the base64 encoded array in the source:

['how to appear funny', 'why are my thumbs uneven', 'am i lack toast and
tolerant', 'your youre difference', 'why doesnt my poo float', 'midget google
images', 'tall midgets??', 'homemade lube?', 'i hate my boss', 'what counts as
fat', 'how to tell partner they fat', 'is it normal to still love my ex', 'how
to get back with ex', 'penis remove dog how to', 'romantic ways to propose',
'engagement rings', 'sex shop in my city', 'how to tell if partner cheating',
'ways to kill someone hypothetically', 'undetectable poisons', 'how to delete
search history in browser', 'ashley madison hack', 'view ashley madison list',
'ashley madison list my city', 'paternity test', 'mail order paternity test',
'attracted to mother why', 'is incest illegal in this country', 'latest laws
incest', 'seduction guide', 'rohypnol safe dosage', 'smelly penis cure
urgent', 'common STIs', 'STI test in my city', 'average penis size this
country', 'do penis pumps work', 'best budget penis pumps', 'does liking men
mean im gay', 'signs of being gay', 'how to come out as gay to dad', 'age of
consent here', 'why is age of consent so old here', 'country low age of
consent', 'flights philippines', 'isis application form', 'how to join isis',
'cheap syria flights from here', 'syria hotels with pool', 'bing', 'donald
trump', 'OH COME ON DONT JUST COPY AND PASTE THE LIST FROM THE ARRAY YOU
CHEEKY SCAMP']"

~~~
tinalumfoil
How to reverse the damages:

1) Go to
[https://history.google.com/history/](https://history.google.com/history/)

2) Select the offending searches

3) Click delete on the top right (then click delete again)

~~~
akerro
Do people actually use Google Search while being logged-in in Google?

~~~
grkvlt
Absolutely! The saved search history is incredibly useful for shaping and
filtering search results to make them more targeted and helpful. I also see
more relevant adverts, and less generic ones, which makes them much less
annoying. People of a certain technical mindset have a knee-jerk "Privacy!
Surveillance! Evil!" response, tuned to the worst possible world type of
scenario, where the rest of the Internet is populated entirely by malicious
bad actors, seeking to harm users. The reality is much more nuanced: most of
the rest of the Internet neither knows nor cares about you; the majority of
the rest are trying to provide useful services to improve their users lives,
sometimes trying to make money by doing this; a minority are bad, either
trying to steal from or scam you.

In terms of Google search, the fact it retains context is actually useful most
of the time, and the edge cases where it is harmful are easily avoided by
countermeasures like logging out, using DuckDuckGo, installing Tor or
switching to incognito mode.

~~~
chillingeffect
> tuned to the worst possible world type of scenario,

With the possibility of a racist American president looming, search results
which could signal one's ethnicity become a valid concern.

------
TomasSedovic
For those wondering how this works (I'm not too good with webdev and thought a
site can't just open another tab and control it remotely):

The code driving this is at:
[http://ruinmysearchhistory.com/ruin.js?1](http://ruinmysearchhistory.com/ruin.js?1)

It uses window.open to run the search:

    
    
        window.open('https://www.google.com/search?q='+ encodeURI(ruinSearchQuery),'ruinmysearchhistory');
    

But the second parameter will set a name to the newly open tab. Calling
window.open with the same name again will reuse the existing tab:

[https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/API/Window/open](https://developer.mozilla.org/en-
US/docs/Web/API/Window/open)

So it doesn't actually control the google site but keeps reloading it with new
search urls. This may be obvious to everybody, but it did confuse me a little.

------
i336_
Related:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonWTF/](https://www.reddit.com/r/AmazonWTF/)
(NSFW!!)

I've heard people complain after being subscribed to that subreddit that
Amazon's relevance engine becomes unusable for them (and while unsaid, I
imagine they can't browse Amazon with anyone else at their computer).

OP, take note. :P

~~~
slyall
I had a weird one yesterday. I went to the New York Times using private
browsing and read a single article in the relationship section (something
about wedding speeches) and then noticed that the next page I went to 90% of
the recommended articles were engagement announcements.

I guess things are hard when you only have a single data-point to base
recommendations off.

~~~
vacri
I always find it amusing when you sign up for a service, and then for the next
little while, half the ads you see are for that service. "Uh... but I've
_already_ signed up..."

~~~
witty_username
I got ads for a mouse (similar model) after it was bought.

~~~
reitanqild
I think I learned in my marketing course that we (statistically) tend to look
out for ads for things we have bought after the purchase.

The reason is hypothesised to be because our brain is actively seeking
confirmation of previous decisions.

That said, your case most definitely was because of indiscriminate
retargeting. Also I guess the effect I mentioned is more visible for bigger
purchases : )

------
rehabindian
I laughed so hard, that co-workers started staring at me. Had to abort before
anyone looked. I think i will hide this like a LMGTFY link and slack it.

------
_alaeri
Reddit has kind of a cool discussion about it there:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIsBeautiful/comments/4nc763...](https://www.reddit.com/r/InternetIsBeautiful/comments/4nc763/ruin_my_search_history_ruin_your_google_search/d42s370)

------
brbsix

        Our systems have detected unusual traffic from your computer network. This page checks to see if it's really you sending the requests, and not a robot. Why did this happen?
    
        IP address: *
        Time: 2016-06-10T00:07:58Z
        URL: https://www.google.com/search?q=donald%20trump
    

It appears Google is not too happy with Donald Trump.

~~~
gohrt
That happens when your IP spams Google with too many queries too quickly.

~~~
dingaling
It also occurs if you cotinually tweak a single search term, for example
adding more and more exclusions to try to bypass Google's 'suggestions'. I
encounter it about once a month.

~~~
maaaats
Yeah, I get it a couple of times a week when I try to search for old technical
stuff, where google constantly reformulates my search and includes what it
thinks are synonyms.

~~~
helb
Google has some kind of "verbatim mode" which usually works better for
technical stuff. (Search tools -> All results –> Verbatim)

~~~
i336_
Yup, putting things in "quotes."

~~~
brbsix
Nowadays verbatim mode may be synonymous with quotes, but it wasn't always.
Google totally nuked it's verbatim search... just try searching for some
command line option flag, e.g. "vagrant --debug" or something even more
esoteric and watch it fail.

~~~
i336_
Yeah. I suspect that in this particular example it's getting confused by the
dashes, which it interprets as an ignore flag. Very silly...

I've actually found that other search engines are actually better at technical
searches than Google is nowadays: once, I was trying to search for Ketmax, a
disassembler for DOS that could step both forward and backward in code. It was
neat. But I couldn't find it.

No, Google, I don't want drugs; I don't want bikes; and I'm _not_ Vietnamese
(?!).

Trying a bunch of alternate search engines in rapid succession, ixquick
quickly found a bunch of old FTP server index references: I forgot the
"35.zip" on the end, and, in fact, just appending "35" was enough for Google
to find it. (I'm not writing the concatenated string here so that I don't
alter Google's index of the word.)

The Internet has gotten so _big_ in recent years, and become completely
overrun with useless information in triplicate; I can't help but wonder if
it's forced Google search to take a more generalized approach to the way they
sort and index information, with some loss of precision, in order to deal with
the volume of fluff.

I was playing around with syllables a few months ago and discovered that the
word "exikyut" appeared to be completely unindexed (except for a couple of
junk "letter combination" sites), so I used it to make a few accounts. Then
Google suddenly turned up a tweet from 2011 where someone had used my "new"
username in conversation years prior. That was weird, being told it didn't
exist then being told it did...

So yeah, Google's index is very imprecise. Great at sending you to
StackOverflow for 1st year JavaScript questions, but nothing like Code Search
used to be.

------
bbcbasic
Run this and you will be profiled by the NSA as a hapless geek HN reader.

~~~
codeisawesome
It's on the frontpage of reddit too now - I wonder what NSA list that would
make...

------
dezb
['how to appear funny', 'why are my thumbs uneven', 'am i lack toast and
tolerant', 'your youre difference', 'why doesnt my poo float', 'midget google
images', 'tall midgets??', 'homemade lube?', 'i hate my boss', 'what counts as
fat', 'how to tell partner they fat', 'is it normal to still love my ex', 'how
to get back with ex', 'penis remove dog how to', 'romantic ways to propose',
'engagement rings', 'sex shop in my city', 'how to tell if partner cheating',
'ways to kill someone hypothetically', 'undetectable poisons', 'how to delete
search history in browser', 'ashley madison hack', 'view ashley madison list',
'ashley madison list my city', 'paternity test', 'mail order paternity test',
'attracted to mother why', 'is incest illegal in this country', 'latest laws
incest', 'seduction guide', 'rohypnol safe dosage', 'smelly penis cure
urgent', 'common STIs', 'STI test in my city', 'average penis size this
country', 'do penis pumps work', 'best budget penis pumps', 'does liking men
mean im gay', 'signs of being gay', 'how to come out as gay to dad', 'age of
consent here', 'why is age of consent so old here', 'country low age of
consent', 'flights philippines', 'isis application form', 'how to join isis',
'cheap syria flights from here', 'syria hotels with pool', 'bing', 'donald
trump', 'OH COME ON DONT JUST COPY AND PASTE THE LIST FROM THE ARRAY YOU
CHEEKY SCAMP']"

------
akerro
TrackMeNot is a lightweight browser extension that helps protect web searchers
from surveillance and data-profiling by search engines. It does so not by
means of concealment or encryption (i.e. covering one's tracks), but instead,
paradoxically, by the opposite strategy: noise and obfuscation. With
TrackMeNot, actual web searches, lost in a cloud of false leads, are
essentially hidden in plain view. User-installed TrackMeNot works with Firefox
and Chrome browsers and popular search engines (AOL, Yahoo!, Google, and Bing)
and requires no 3rd-party servers or services.

------
iagorodriguez
If you create a form to submit new searches I will definitively help you (Cómo
votar a Trump si eres mexicano)

~~~
Juancho_Villa
¿Cómo votar _por_ Trump si eres mexicano?

~~~
Kluny
Buy yourself a non-voting american. I'm sure there's a few left.

~~~
jschwartzi
I should really start a website that lets people bid for each other's votes
online.

~~~
NKCSS
I believe you'd make a killing, but I'm not sure it would be legal (and if so,
I'm pretty sure they'll put a stop to it asap).

~~~
throwanem
Vote buying and selling is election fraud per 18 U.S. Code § 597 [1]. In fact,
it's not even legal to make the offer, in either direction:

"Whoever makes or offers to make an expenditure to any person, either to vote
or withhold his vote, or to vote for or against any candidate; and

Whoever solicits, accepts, or receives any such expenditure in consideration
of his vote or the withholding of his vote—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than one year, or both;
and if the violation was willful, shall be fined under this title or
imprisoned not more than two years, or both."

[1]
[https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/597)

------
ssevenn
I almost fell off my chair. They should come up with a way to contribute to
this list

------
elliottcarlson
Some what related is the UTM Mangler; a browser extension that auto-replaces
UTM campaign parameters with more interesting alternatives:
[https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/utm-
mangler/ngddln...](https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/utm-
mangler/ngddlnhlmdnjphddadgonpfhccgjhfji?hl=en-US) (source code:
[https://github.com/huntwelch/UTM-Mangler](https://github.com/huntwelch/UTM-
Mangler))

------
necessity
This thread makes me really happy for my recent installation of NoScript.

------
capoditutticapi
most of these searches look like my regular browse history

------
striking
Well, I'm probably on a list now. Thanks for that.

~~~
other_herbert
We are all on multiple lists...

~~~
lozf
Now we've just been added to another list of people that know they're on
lists.

~~~
throwanem
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_lists_of_lists)

------
seleniumk
I so badly want to extend this. I want more terrible searches!

~~~
whamlastxmas
Just scrape keywords off 4chan and some deep web sites. Cops knocking on your
door in no time.

------
ganessh
Use incognito window to see what this is going to do

~~~
kej
That protects your saved history but doesn't help with anyone monitoring your
searches, like corporate or political overlords.

~~~
lugg
Send your boss the link in an email hiding the address.

Problem solved.

------
dude3
Next step is a chrome plugin that randomly searches for stuff in the
background.

~~~
balls187
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11873172](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=11873172)

------
lalos
Privacy through noise? through obfuscation? I need a word for this

~~~
jegoodwin3
"r strategy privacy"

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R/K_selection_theory)

------
anotheryou
They should have left out the gay stuff. Might have potential to stir up a
heterosexual relationship, but makes it look like it's a bad thing on it's
own.

~~~
noxToken
Or when you consider that most people in a relationship are in a heterosexual
relationship, you target a lot of people.

------
coenhyde
This is super irresponsible to have on HN. Not funny. Especially for people
who live in despot countries. Not sure if the USA counts quite yet.

~~~
Buge
Well the queries to google use https, so ISPs and government monitors
shouldn't be able to see the queries. If you have malware on your computer, or
if Google is giving your search history out to despot countries (I don't think
they are), you might be worried.

~~~
coenhyde
Google doesn't do certificate pinning with HPKP. So nothing stopping a despot
country from using certs signed by a valid CA. And of course there are
compromised CA's. The US is just smart enough not to do this for mass
collection, otherwise they'll get caught.

~~~
Buge
It seems that Google does public key pinning, but possibly only through
preloaded lists in browsers such as Chrome and Firefox. This blog post
mentions them catching a bogus google.com cert from a trusted root

[https://security.googleblog.com/2015/03/maintaining-
digital-...](https://security.googleblog.com/2015/03/maintaining-digital-
certificate-security.html)

This says Google does use HPKP, but I don't see headers myself.
[https://calomel.org/http_public_key_pinning_hpkp.html](https://calomel.org/http_public_key_pinning_hpkp.html)

~~~
coenhyde
Interesting. A search in chrome://net-internals/#hsts for Google does indeed
show the public key pinning. I guess they do own Chrome and could get their
public key hashes baked into other browsers too.

------
gexla
Are you hiring to come up with the crazy ____in this list? I would like to
apply.

------
bikamonki
"ways to kill someone hypothetically" oh oh cops knocking anytime now...

------
beardog
Kind of glad i used the tor browser bundle for this, pretty funny though.

------
dayN
Please mark the post NSFW

------
melvinmt
Will check this out next time I'm in an Apple Store...

------
voiceclonr
This screwed me up. I gave the 5 second attention and I thought it was doing
the opposite (i.e flood with SFW links and sanitize my search).

------
techthroway443
Just got a letter from my supervisor. Had no idea it would 'ruin' my search
with perverted garbage. Thanks for that.

------
yyhhsj0521
After the 7th or the 8th query, Google's captcha kicked in, asking me to prove
my humanity before continuing.

------
gauravagarwalr
Game Theory: If enough people click this, does Google stop showing stupid ads
to everyone eventually?

~~~
vinchuco
Would Google be forced to pay less per click, disincentivizing advertisers?
I'm not sure.

------
Uptrenda
Some of these ISIS searches make me slightly concerned ... but other than
that, not bad.

------
ianai
Now do this for facebook profiles

------
daveloyall
From the title, I guessed this would be some attempt to spoil or camouflage
the profile that google keeps on each user, thus decreasing the value of
profiles, thus fighting back.

While I _expected_ the attempt to be flawed, according to mmastrac's analysis,
this is a joke. (And a pretty 'meh' one, at that!)

~~~
Sir_Substance
There's an actual thing that does this:

[https://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/](https://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/)

------
lumberjack
OK isn't this dangerous though? I don't want to get on any lists.

------
nostromo
Warning: people should know this is NSFW for anyone with a company that
monitors your web usage.

I also wouldn't run this from an authoritarian country where local officials
may not appreciate the joke.

~~~
colemickens
Do companies really MITM SSL traffic in order to watch employees surfing
habits?

~~~
lkrups
The search term is in the url.

~~~
colemickens
Which is still not normally visible to an outsider in an HTTPS request...
(other than the cases we're discussing in the sub-thread where the company has
installed a root CA and is seeing all of the traffic anyway).

------
greenspot
Great idea, I'll let this run all day long.

------
j0e1
I'm 'ruined'!

------
4h53n
Shit.

------
iagorodriguez
laughed really hard :)

------
mathattack
Why vote this crap up?

------
smoreilly
This is beautiful.

------
beatpanda
A+

------
api
Such disrupt. So convergent. Wow.

------
ryanmarsh
Got a really good LOL out of this. I wish HN had a little more humor, not
Reddit levels, just a wee bit more.

