I recently received an email from a reader. His question was about clearing the Google search history. I cover clearing the web page history from your mobile web browser’s history list, but one thing that doesn’t fix is Google’s own history of those items you’ve searched for. Here’s how to clean-up that list.

Whenever you search for something on Google, either on the main Google page or in YouTube, that information is stored on the Google servers. To remove it, you must visit your Google account and actively purge the search history items. This task is done easily and quickly on an Android tablet. Follow these steps:

1. On your tablet, visit Google.com
2. Tap the Gear icon (settings) by your account name near the upper right corner of the screen. If it’s not there, log in to Google.
3. Choose Search Settings.
4. Tap the Manage button to the right of the item Search History.
5. If prompted, verify your Gmail password and sign-in.

On a computer’s web browser, click your account picture and choose My Account. On the Personal Info & Privacy card, click Activity Controls. Locate the Your Searches and Browsing Activity card and click the MANAGE ACTIVITY link. Skip to Step 6.

You see a list of all the places you’ve been and things you’ve searched for. Next to each card is a checkbox.

6. Tap the check box by the item(s) you want to remove.
7. Cape the DELETE button at the top of the screen to remove those items.

That final Step clears your Google search history, as well as searches done by other Google services, such as YouTube or Maps.

Again, this information is stored on Google’s servers, not on your Android or computer. You must visit your account as described in this post. Then you can remove any search items or other information.