Can You Clear Your Twitter Search Suggestions?
If you’re like most people, you probably don’t look at your Twitter search suggestions more than once or twice before you clear them out and begin your search again. But have you ever stopped to wonder what’s actually on those suggestions? Believe it or not, some of the things that pop up in your Twitter search suggestions have been searched by hundreds or even thousands of other Twitter users!
Yes, you can clear your Twitter search history
In January 2014, Twitter announced that users could clear their search history. This meant that you could go back and delete your previous searches on a user-by-user basis. On Wednesday, however, it was discovered that you can delete your entire search history from all devices with one click. Now if you’re a regular user of Twitter or even use Google Chrome for your web searches, chances are good that a) you’ve done some Googling through both accounts; and b) quite often what pops up as suggestions when you type in your browser address bar includes Google searches. Well, those searches show up on both Facebook and Twitter if they include logged-in users, regardless of whether or not they have searched them before.
How to clear your Twitter search suggestions
It's simple to clear your search suggestions on Twitter. The list of topics you've searched for overtime is stored by Twitter and is accessed through a drop-down menu near the top of your account's search bar. This feature allows you to track topics of interest or follow various news outlets (much like Facebook's trending section). Some users find that having their complete search history available in one place can be beneficial, while others prefer that their activity isn't archived unless they explicitly click Show My Complete Search History. Regardless, it takes only a few minutes to remove all items from your list if it's not something you want tracking.
Why does it matter?
As a blogger, you’re probably aware of search engine optimization. If not, go ahead and type define SEO into Google (that’s how I learned about it) and we can get back to our post. There are many ways to optimize your posts so they appear in front of more people when they do searches online—for example, by including commonly searched terms in your headlines or adding lots of images. While there’s a big debate about whether it matters for individual blogs, for large publications with big readerships on a topic like social media or marketing trends, search optimization is key.
How do I opt-out of Twitter searches for me?
First, type in your name or handle into a Twitter search box and look at what comes up. If it’s not something you want other people to see when they search for you on Twitter, click on it, then go to your settings. On that page, find Search suggestions and select No one (the only option) from under Who can see your search suggestions? Hit Save at the bottom right of that section. This will make sure you are no longer included in Twitter searches for yourself. The change may take a few hours to be reflected in your account; if someone does a search for you before then, they might still get some results showing up with your old settings.
What about privacy concerns?
There’s no denying that there are privacy concerns associated with search suggestions. Without your knowledge, others can see your recent search queries, which means you might be sharing information about yourself without even realizing it. However, if you have nothing to hide—and don’t have anything particularly private in mind—you can easily clear these suggestions. If you prefer to keep these suggestions hidden from your public profile, though, Twitter gives you an option to hide them as well.
What are Twitter's official statements on the matter?
Twitter users control their experience by following, blocking, and muting other accounts. In addition, our policies are fully transparent and easy to find here. Of course, we take action when appropriate on any accounts that violate our terms of service. Does that really answer our question?: Not really. So what's going on here?: I have no idea, said Vineet Jain, co-founder of Share This, a social media sharing company that has offices in five countries, including one in San Francisco.
