Google defaults are set to use your personal web history and browser information to personalize your search results.  This means that your search results could be a bit different from someone else searching for the same term.    Most people are fine with the personalized web results, but others may want to edit the settings or stop it completely.  There are several different ways to do this:

1.  Simply sign out of Google.  If you aren’t logged in, Google can’t access your history.  This is best for people who only  need the personalization default turned off sometimes and don’t need to be logged in to Google to access other applications.

2.  You can follow Google’s instructions for the official way they recommend for disabling personalization.  You will first need to sign out of Google while searching.  You will see “disable customization” under the “web history” tab in the top right corner of the search results screen.  Click the box to disable the customization feature.

3.  If you use FireFox, download an add-on called Google Global.  This add-on allows you to stop Google from personalizing all of your web searches.  It also allows you to see the results other countries receive to your web searches.

4. If you are a Google Chrome  user you can use the Disable Google Personal Search plugin.

5.  Finally, you can always insert the parameter “&pws=0” in the URL bar of your browser after performing a search (you’ll have hit the enter key or the search button again).  This will remove the personalized web results feature for that search only.

So there you have it! Here’s how you can stop big brother from watching every step.  In addition to that it’s a also a great way to track site rankings if you are running an SEO campaign.