Google would like for you to use Gemini more often. Today, the company announced that you can opt to have Gemini read your search history when prompting it for help. Google says the upside of this is that it’ll give you more personalized results when you interact with Gemini. “This will enable Gemini to provide more personalized insights, drawing from a broader understanding of your activities and preferences to deliver responses that truly resonate with you,” writes Google.
I sense people are going to feel scandalized by this news. Why wouldn’t they? The idea that a computer reads all your emails and search queries to determine how to serve you best sounds dystopian, like nanny technology. However, consider this no different from Gmail, which has been serving ads based on your inbox content for over 20 years. Once folks catch on to this utility, it won’t feel like an invasion of privacy. At the very least, it’s not serving you more ads!
You can turn on the new Gemini features from the browser app.
Google says it will only use your Search history when its advanced reasoning models “determine that it’s actually helpful.” Prompts you can ask include “Where should I go on vacation?” and “I want to start a YouTube channel but need content ideas.” You can even ask Gemini what to pursue as a hobby. Then, when you’re over it, you can disconnect your search history from being linked to Gemini and continue unbothered.
If you want to turn it on to try it yourself, you can enable it from the Gemini app in the browser. Just make sure you’re a Gemini or Gemini Advanced subscriber.
I asked Gemini to help me develop content for a YouTube channel; it was spot on. Gemini suggested that I make content about smartphones and Android devices, naturally. However, it also mentioned Tamagotchi and the retro tech I’ve been buying recently on eBay—I’m researching reviving old cell phones from the 2000s. Gemini even suggested I do content on parenting and mental health; that one felt a little intense. Gemini put it like this:
“Your searches related to perimenopause, anxiety, and gentle parenting suggest an interest in mental health topics. You could share your experiences or discuss helpful resources.”
If you do end up turning on this personalization feature—I will keep it on for a while because I signed up for the duty to be your faithful guinea pig for most things Google—you’re going to want to make sure that any search that you do for something that you do not wish AI to bring up ever in your life needs to be away from any Google entities. If you’re on your phone or desktop, I highly suggest a search engine like DuckDuckGo for those spicy searches.
In addition to search queries becoming part of the Gemini experience, Google is rolling out Gems for everyone today, even users who don’t subscribe to Gemini Advanced. DeepResearch has also been made free to the public after being locked off to paid users. The Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking Experimental model has also been added to Gemini to help supercharge it. Gemini will improve at handling cross-app requests between Google’s different services, like Calendar and Photos.
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