Why did Google launch an Incognito mode on Chrome?

Of course, users who want to use the browser in incognito mode - do not save history. But what advantages does Google have when it comes to that feature?

Early Chrome users will surely not forget one of the key features of this browser : anonymous browsing (Incognito).

Although behind Apple for nearly three years, Chrome is still the first Windows-based browser to support anonymous browsing and thus attracts a large number of followers who need to see the content . hard to explain. . Both Internet Explorer and Firefox take more than a year to catch up with this feature.

But have you ever thought about why Google supports anonymous browsing right on the first official release of Chrome? The answer may surprise you: advertising.

Advertising nature

You may not realize it, but Google's source of life is advertising.

First of all, let's repeat an important truth: Google is an advertising company . To effectively advertise (hit a target audience), Google will read search keywords, emails sent / received on Gmail or places you visit on Maps to better understand you.

If you have just searched for the keyword 'best SSD' , and if you have just watched a series of video reviews of products such as the Evo 860 or WD Blue 500GB, obviously you need to buy SSDs.

The problem is how to make Google know who just searched for 'SSD' on Google.com a few days ago, and who just watched the Evo 860 video review on YouTube is also you?

Before you give an answer to 'Google accounts', remember that the effort to integrate Google products into an extensive network has only really happened in the last few years, especially through the network. Google+ 'destitute' society.

And more importantly, websites are outside Google. If you go to an e-commerce site to find an SSD, your shopping needs are almost certain.

The only problem here is connecting all the information on the web to create the most accurate portrait of you, the things you care about - in other words your shopping needs.

Cookies are how Google (and other advertisers) build portraits of you to advertise correctly.

The ability to create this portrait has actually been on the web for a long time. People call them 'cookies' . In other words, cookies are small packets of information about users sent and received by each website. Combining cookies on a multi-site network, advertisers will create a clear portrait of your shopping needs.

Without Incognito Mode

Back to our problem. Think about it, what if netizens use their regular browser to visit the 'hot' web? Soon, they will be forced to erase the history of web surfing.

No one wants to receive ads with slightly sensitive content, want to blush when accidentally pressing the 'p' button on the address box.

Unfortunately, deleting the browsing history will also lead to an unwanted cookie. What advertisers know about users who have just deleted their browsing history will not fly, all because they 'miss' the web 'hot'.

But the need to watch 'hot' webs is not small. According to CE statistics, in 2015 up to 2 billion Internet searches were for hot web. Another organization, Internet Safety, thinks . 30% of the entire content on the web is "hot" content .

Before Incognito, deleting web history was to delete everything - including cookies.

Incognito Mode itself will be an effective answer to the "inevitable" issue related to sensitive content and cookies. With just a set of shortcuts (Ctrl Shift N) , we will be taken to a mode that does not save visited web pages.

After you're done, just turn off incognito mode. What the advertisers - most notably Google - know about every user across the wide web will not disappear.

Many other features also come from similar motivations. For example, Google is also one of the first browsers to allow consistent browsing history between different devices of the same user.

This feature is really convenient for you, but it will be really helpful for Google: no matter what device you switch to, right after the identity of Google history can immediately understand you without It takes a long time to collect cookies.

Are these features useful for you? Obviously yes. But remember that they are also very useful for Google. Always, users' needs are just an excuse - the benefits for companies are what really drives the user experience forward.