"Google users have until Wednesday night to change settings before their private searches merge into one online identity.

Starting March 1, Google will turn 60 policies into one. The new policy will let Google combine a user's searches, emails and sites accessed through Google to create a single user profile. Previously, data from Gmail, Google+ and YouTube accounts were stored separately. The new system will combined information from the services to provide Google with a single identity for each user.

This new identity will be used for targeted ads and customized search results, among other things."


The full article explicating the effects of the changes and what to do to clear your history - Link.

This link will take you directly to the Google history page. Just log in and delete your history.

Lastly, here is an article that lists different search engines that don't use your information or sell it. Personally, I use DuckDuckGo.

Screw Google!

Peace

I prefer google. The image below is a good example why I prefer their search engine!

http://i.imgur.com/7cnZj.png

I have no google accounts. I guess I just get merged in with the nameless horde. Resistance is futile...

I'm with you David! Running my little website requires the help of the search engines, otherwise I'd be writing basically just to hear my own voice, in a sense. Google provides wonderful analytics of your site's activity, for free. Google sends me a lot of my traffic, and those visitors sometimes even make purchases on my site.

Plus, I utilize Google Ads on my site, though they're a mixed blessing for little publishers like me (because they take visitors away from your site). But they do pay for my annual server hosting charges, and a bit more if I'm lucky.

Gmail has been a saviour for me many times. And Feedburner, a Google company, lets me track my site subscribers and manage my email list. Again, for free. There are other alternatives, but I'm not at a point where I can afford or justify them.

Would I manage without Google? Probably. But I like it better with Google. My $0.02.

This change is for the better

I don't see it as an issue. Like others have said, you probably already use the same password across different Google systems already, so there was a risk before. You could have chosen other sites/apps to use, but found the Google ones to fit your needs.

I guess those people out there that search for things on Google like "busty babes" may or may not want that showing up on their YouTube main page (for those trying to hide it from their significant others). Then again, either stop, or search using something besides Google if you don't want the results tracked.

Not a big deal and should actually make things easier in the future. Heck, Apple and Microsoft gather so much data from us already and we've been OK with that. The super popular iTunes likes to hijack all of your music and video stuff and can somewhat force itself upon you, but we say it is OK.

I'm not concerned, and I am usually a skeptic about this kind of stuff.