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How can I search in a way in Google that prevents my search terms being linked to my identity (cookies, IP ...)? I know there are some tools such as a Firefox extension that makes random searches from time to time to "drown" the real searches among fake ones.

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5 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

You could use the 'incognito' mode in chrome, or the 'InPrivate' mode in IE, and then use https://www.google.com to do the search.

This would (somewhat) protect your searches locally, and if you don't log into any google accounts while in incognito mode, it should protect you from having your searches tied to your id in google.

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1  
I just asked the question as an "interesting question" anyway and I meant it to be more related to Google storing my searches (nytimes.com/2006/08/09/technology/…) than stuff being on my computer. Read "The Problem of Anonymous Vanity Searches" by Christopher Soghoian for more info. – Omar Kohl Jul 2 '10 at 8:36
+1 for interesting topic :) – John Weldon Jul 2 '10 at 8:38
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this does not hide the ip, nor the client (browser), obviously. but if thats a non-issue, this answer is just fine. to hide these kind of information you have to use a "proxy", see tor or other meta-sites (which will then know your ip instead of google knowing it). – akira Jul 2 '10 at 9:13
up vote 1 down vote

If you are really paranoid, boot a live distro of Linux from CDROM, do the search and switch off the machine :-)

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up vote 0 down vote

Until yesterday you could have used Scroogle, but they're having problems right now.

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up vote 2 down vote

use Tor and delete all cookies in your browser after each session.

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up vote 1 down vote

one option would be something like Hidemyass.

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There is an interesting comment from 'littledave' under instructables.com/id/… He makes some good points – Miro A. Jul 8 '10 at 17:27
@Miro A.: see my "tor" answer. – akira Jul 9 '10 at 3:41
Right. That comment actually belongs to TOR, sorry for misplacement – Miro A. Jul 9 '10 at 5:05
then put it there and we delete the comments here. – akira Jul 9 '10 at 9:05

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