Have you been on a journey yet in Chrome browser? The journey idea might have escaped your notice and it is a great new way to view browsing history, but it is not obvious from the name.
When you first hear of viewing journeys in Chrome, you might think that it has something to do with Google Maps. Has the app been recording your travel and movements throughout the day? Yes, but that is another story and one that has nothing to do with the journeys feature in Chrome browser.
A journey in Chrome is actually a different way to view your web browsing history. I am not sure the name ‘journey’ is helpful and it is a bit confusing. Unless you try it and see what it really is, you might skip the feature thinking that it is something to do with travel. It is not.
This is a Chrome feature and it is not dependent on the operating system, so it applies to Apple Mac, Windows PC and Linux.
- How to stop Chrome draining your laptop battery so fast
- Boost Chrome performance, reduce memory usage on PC and Mac
View browsing history in Chrome
First let us look at the way Chrome traditionally shows your browsing history and then we will view it in a new journey way.
Click the three dots in the top right corner of the browser to open the menu. Let the mouse hover over History and a second later, a sub-menu appears with a list of the web pages and websites you recently visited.
This view of your browsing history is organized by device and it is useful to see the last sites visited on another computer, your phone and whatever else you use. If you want to continue browsing a website you were looking at on your phone, this is the place to find it.
There is an alternative view of your browsing history though.
Open Chrome’s side panel
A new icon appeared in the Chrome toolbar at the right side of the address box in a recent browser update. Click the rectangular icon at the right side of the toolbar and a panel opens on the right side of the browser.
By default, it shows your reading list. Click Reading list and select Journeys on the menu that is displayed.
This shows your browsing history as before, but it is organized in a different way. Your history is organized by website and displayed on tiles or cards. The title of each one may be the domain name or, if you performed a search on the site, it could be the search term. It can show a Google search or a site search, such as what images you searched for on a stock photos site.
Each section shows the pages viewed on a website in the order in which they were visited, (I found it isn’t always right, but I think it is the intention), so you can see your journey or path taken through the site from the first page you looked at to the most recent.
Each section in the journeys panel has a menu button in the top right corner. Click it and you can remove it from your browsing history or open all the pages in tabs. Move the mouse over a site in the list and a menu button appears so that one site can be removed.
If you want to see a larger version of this journeys panel, click the button at the top or go to chrome://history/journeys. Alternatively, press Ctrl+H (PC) or Shift+Cmd+H (Mac). Select the Journeys tab at the top. It does not show any more information than the panel, but there is more space for long page titles.
Journeys is an interesting feature in Chrome and organizing browsing history by website makes it easier to find a page you previously visited than the usual history view.
