How in the Tech

Delete Firefox Browsing History Selectively by Site

By Adam Myers ⋅ July 2, 2009 ⋅ Tags: Firefox, Privacy

The three major browsers out there – Firefox, Chrome, and IE – all include functionality that allows for private browsing sessions. While each browser likes to put their own name on the feature the idea remains the same, websites and any related data collected in a private session is deleted and removed from the computer when the session ends. Unfortunately, the moniker of porn-mode has gotten attached to this privacy session even though there are a multitude of other reasons one may want to hide their tracks.

Before private browsing most users who were concerned with their privacy were aware on how to clean-up after themselves but wiping their website history and any cookies associated. Typically, this was an all or nothing purge, if you wanted to hide your Youtube history from your employer you were often forced to delete all other history – history that is probably helpful in your day to day browsing. For example, in Firefox I can quickly bring up CNN by typing cnn in the address bar and assuming CNN’s website exists in my history, the URL would appear allowing me to jump right to the site. Session cookies are also highly useful when used to maintain an authenticated state across a message board, for example. All of this is lost when you execute a mass purge.

The privacy mode completely eliminates the earlier problem but also brings about one of it’s own. You have to remember to initiate the private session first! This process is still somewhat clunky and currently results in the browsers launching a brand new browser window. So what if you forgot to jump into private mode and visited a website you would like to remove from your history, but not remove the rest of your history? Firefox makes this rather easy but many people aren’t aware it’s even possible.

1. Bring up your browser history with CTRL+SHIFT+ H in Firefox.
2. From the navigation window drill down to Today’s date. You will then see a list of all sites visited on the right.



3. Right-click on the site you wish to erase and select Forget About This Site.



4. Repeat step 3 for every other site you wish to purge.