If there's one feature that I would assert almost everyone wants which requires tracking some data, its search history recommendation.
2. There is no need for any tracking to implement this. It can be done on the client.
No, we're talking about accounts who already had it (as part of broader setting) disabled for them, in a context where the data in question can (contractually) only be used to provide the service anyhow.
> 2. There is no need for any tracking to implement this. It can be done on the client.
Pray tell me how you can do client side search history recommendation for the first query I make after logging in.
That doesn’t contradict that it was switched off intentionally.
> Pray tell me how you can do client side search history recommendation for the first query I make after logging in.
Logging in to what? Are you saying you want your search history synced between your browsers? If so, that’s a solved problem that doesn’t require Google to track you.
And the corollary equally applies: it's a trivial feature with no privacy impact, why require opt-in. I don't want to be spammed with opt-ins every time every app I use adds a trivial new feature. I'd be clicking a dozen boxes a day.
Keep in mind all the user data collected is still under the workspace data use agreement which is very strict and disallows using the data for pretty much anything that isn't directly providing that service to that user/organization.
2. True but it's somewhat useful to be able to use your account on different devices and retain your history.
(Web browsers store previously visited websites)
What? Yes they are! Browser history includes every page you navigate to, including the "search results for 'tps report'" page of a cloud storage service.
This distinction doesn't matter too much though, because having the browser be responsible for this fails in at least two ways:
1. The browser shouldn't need knowlege of how to parse every query language of every webapp you use.
2. The browser can't actually give you the results of those queries. If I search for "tps reports", the browser knows I entered that query string, but it doesn't know what the 15 results were, and so can't, for example take my prior search into account when I search for "12/17/2022" to uprank the TPS report for that date, as opposed to some other report. Nor can it even do the weaker bit and assume that since I searched TPS yesterday, when I search "reports" today, it should consider upranking tps reports.
Smart systems which sometimes work and sometimes don't are vastly more frustrating than dumb systems which do exactly what they're told, every time.