Help with clearing auto-fill on Google (Mac)

Factual Questions
1

There is an old thread on this but I couldn’t find it, so…

This thanksgiving my nephew stayed with me and Googled some porn sites on my computer (iBook G4). Now everytime I do a Google search I get a drop down of all the porn references he Googled. Not a big thing but I wouldn’t want someone else to think I surfed porn. :wink:

Anyway, I spent the last 2 days trying to clear the search history without wiping something else out. Help?

Is this a ‘Safari’ preference or a Google one?

Thanks

2

I the PC world. You get the box to drop down, highlight an entry and then hit (shift and delete). There is a good chance that will work on yours as well.

3

The above didn’t type well. That is how you do it on a PC, I poked around and think that may not work for you.

However, I did find this:

"If you’re using Safari on a Macintosh: In the “Safari” menu, choose
“Preferences…” and click on the “AutoFill” tab. Uncheck the “Other
Forms” box to stop all autofilling. If you do want to keep
autofilling forms on certain web sites, click the “Edit” button and
add those sites to the list. "

http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Talk-Help-Discuss/browse_thread/thread/211c13fc79d64f08/17f20354f8dcb67f?lnk=raot

4

Doesn’t work. I could highlight but not delete. I tried all combinations.

5

That did it! Thank you, Shag.

6

Well, almost. This method hides past search entries not deletes them (when you re-check the box past search entries come back). It’s good enough for my purposes now, but wanted to warn anyone using this method.

Thanks for the link.

7

Have you tried deleting all your cookies for Google? That worked for me.

8

Embarrassed to say but I have no idea how to do this. I’ve never really understood exactly how cookies work/what they are.

Anyone?

9

I deleted all my Google cookies, and still various stuff comes up.

Mac autofill is like a curse. How DO you get rid of that Google autofill crap for good???

10

Actually, I figured it out. Preferences/Autofill/Other forms: Edit. Remove.

11

Thanks ever so, Aeschines, this was driving me crazy!

12

Quickie layman’s answer: when you visit some sites, they will tell your browser “Hey! I’ve got some information for you to save!” Your browser then remembers that site foobar.com wants to remember whatever-it-was-asked-to-save. Later, the site might ask your browser if it has that information; if the browser provides it, the site can then play with it, such as printing a “You last visited us X days” ago message, or recognizing you as a registered SDMB member.

Some people get worried about cookies because the stuff that gets saved and the sites asking for information are not (usually) limited. If SiteOne.com saves your credit card number in a cookie, that might not mean much, since it’s your PC anyway. But if you then go to SiteTwo.com, it could (theoretically) ask for that information and get it as a result. Or, on a more mundane level, if you leave your computer unattended, your nosy officemate might browse through your cookies and see what your CC number is, then buy a year’s supply of aspirin with it.

I’m vastly oversimplifying, of course, but that’s cookies in a nutshell. They can’t actually do anything by themselves, being nothing more than arbitrary bits of information, but if the information is sensitive and it gets into the wrong hands, be prepared to ask your nosy officemate for some aspirin.