by edvakf

It was long thought that Google's another killer web service Google Web History cannot be used in Opera.

If you go to their page you will find that to enable Google Web History you have to install Google Toolbar, which means, like many other Google services, only IE and Firefox users are able to access this service. But it was not the case. Google Web History stores the websites you visited according to the request for Google PageRank. So even if you don't have Google Toolbar installed on your Firefox, you can get Google Web History with an extension like PageRank Checker.

It's a good news. You didn't need Google Toolbar at all to use Google Web History. All you have to do is to send a request to get Google PageRank for every page you open. In fact, you don't even need to display the PageRank on a page.

Here is a UserJS to enable Google Web History in Opera, written by mallowlabs (his blog entry in Japanese). He says it's distributed under public domain, so I copy and paste it here.


enablegooglewebhistory.user.js

// ==UserScript==
// @name EnableGoogleWebHistory
// @author mallowlabs
// @namespace http://mallowlabs.s206.xrea.com/
// @version 0.0.2
// @license public domain
// @description : Enable Google Web History
// @published 2007-01-05
// @modified 2006-01-05
// @include *
// ==/UserScript==

// see also
// http://www.scss.com.au/family/andrew/opera/panels/pagerank/
// http://d.hatena.ne.jp/amatanoyo/20080104/1199450996
// =========================================
(function(){

    // avoid frame
    if (window.self != window.parent) return;

    var r=function(x,y){
        return Math.floor((x/y-Math.floor(x/y))*y+.1);
    },
    ch=function(url){
        url='info:'+url;
        var c=[0x9E3779B9,0x9E3779B9,0xE6359A60],i,j,k=0,l,f=Math.floor,
        m=function(c){
            var i,j,s=[13,8,13,12,16,5,3,10,15];
            for(i=0;i<9;i+=1){
                j=c[r(i+2,3)];
                c[r(i,3)]=(c[r(i,3)]-c[r(i+1,3)]-j)^(r(i,3)==1?j<<s[i]:j>>>s[i]);
            }
        };
        for(l=url.length;l>=12;l-=12){
            for(i=0;i<16;i+=1){
                j=k+i;c[f(i/4)]+=url.charCodeAt(j)<<(r(j,4)*8);
            }
            m(c);
            k+=12;
        }
        c[2]+=url.length;
        for(i=l;i>0;i--)
            c[f((i-1)/4)]+=url.charCodeAt(k+i-1)<<(r(i-1,4)+(i>8?1:0))*8;
        m(c);
        return'6'+c[2];
    };
    var url=document.location;

    /* create image element */
    new Image().src = 'http://www.google.com/search?client=navclient-auto&ch='+ch(url)+'&features=Rank&q=info:'+escape(url);
})();

(Thanks to Google PageRank Button for the request URL computation)

All you need to do is install the above, go to Google Web History, login and enable it! Enjoy web browsing 10 times more!


Having used Google Web History myself for a day now, I think it's awesome! I was using Opera9.50beta's Search History for a while, but it's search function is pretty poor so far. I couldn't even do an AND search. I also like the fact that Google stores my web history forever, not only up to the limit of my browser cache.


Added 2008-1-10

This entry was featured in Use Google Web History Without Installing Google Toolbar. Thanks for visiting!

The original creater has put the script up to UserScript.org. To keep up with current version, please go there (although I don't think there will be further updates).