Many of you would have heard recent news about Google downtime. Although the downtime was very short; according to internet analytics experts this caused a huge fall in online traffic globally. This shows how heavily dependent we are on these recent search engines

When you surf the web, it leaves behind a trace of your internet usage in forms of cache, cookies, browsing history. While this could be helpful for some as it makes it easier to revisit webpages that you already did; it could be pain for others who do not wish to make their browsing history/pattern known to everyone. Thus the concept of ‘Private Browsing’ came into picture. Most popularly referred to as ‘Porn-Mode’, this feature prevents browsers from storing your browsing history, images, videos, and texts within cache. It also stops storing cookies and flash-cookies. In your web browser you can enable private mode for selected sessions. Every time when you open the browser your inclination towards privacy may be different; so activating private browsing mode may give you positive or negative output depending on your inclinations. Private browsing may not protect you from viruses, hackers, or identity thefts; it simply won’t record your browsing content on your device. It cannot stop other sites, networks from tracking your activities because when you enter a search in the browser it usually travels through many other sites and networks, until you get to final result.

When you log on from someone else’s computer, when you handle multiple accounts on same browser, or when you are using public computer; you will opt for private browsing. There could be many reasons that could make you think about using Private Browsing such as planning for a surprise for your family or when you want to surf the web for your personal stuff or access the website that you don’t want to get tracked at your workplace etc.

With increasing inclination of people towards the use of private browsing, many browsers started supporting it. According to some references, earliest instance of private browsing was with Safari browser bundled with Mac OS X_Tiger. The first private browsing came into use in May’05 and from then on with the increasing usage; gradually many other companies have started making this feature available on their browsers. Google Chrome was the next to follow the suit when it launched this feature with the name “Incognito”. Soon other browsers like Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox, and Opera jumped on the bandwagon.

At present you will find private browsing with almost every browser available. This feature has not only made its way in the web browsers; but has also entered into modern way of browsing with electronic devices. Initially it was only available on computer for web browsing; but now you can enable it on your iPhone, iPod, Kindle fire, Android phones etc. Even though private browsing is not full-poof security; the purpose of hiding your stuff from others is getting served. Ever-growing use of private browsing indicates the high value in current market share.