Visualizing my browsing history

2014-03-25 1 min read

    I came across a neat Chrome extension called Iconic History that generates a history of your browsing history through favicons. The value of a good visualization is that it’s able to quickly provide a new perspective to something that seemed mundane and forgotten. I’ve looked at my browser history numerous times and but never thought much of it until I looked at the pattern of icons. It’s obvious that my usage occurs in bursts - I will go through multiple emails when going through my inbox or refining a search. My usage has also changed since I stopped using Gmail for my personal email and started using Fastmail. There’s the occasional new site but for the most part I’m a creature of habits - email, search, facebook, and Hacker News constitute the bulk of my internet activity. I’m honestly surprised by how much activity is taken up by a few sites. I suspect most people are similar - a few sites make up the majority of the page views. It would be great to see what this looks like for others and see if any general patterns emerge - I’m sure almost everyone people will have some mix of email, search, and Facebook but I’m curious to see what the outliers are.

    Iconic history