How Google Autocomplete Suggestions Work and How They Influence You

As you type in Google, it suggests ways to finish your search. Google calls these predictions, not recommendations: they guess what you're likely to search based on what other people search. They still shape what people end up looking for.

Where the suggestions come from

• What other people search. Predictions are drawn from real searches, both common ones and ones trending right now.
• Where you are and your language. The same first few letters give different predictions in different cities and countries.
• Your own past searches, if you're signed in with search history on. These usually show with a clock icon.

Google filters predictions under its policies, removing ones that are sexually explicit, hateful, violent or dangerous, and some about elections and people. Some predictions slip through, and you can report them with the "Report inappropriate predictions" link under the suggestion list.

How autocomplete influences you

• It shapes the question. If you start typing "is coffee" and Google offers "is coffee bad for you", that's the question you may end up asking, and the answers you get follow from it.
• It makes some searches look common. A prediction can make a rumor or a worry seem widespread, even though it's only a pattern in what people typed.
• It speeds up the familiar. Picking a suggestion is easier than typing your own words, so popular phrasings win.

None of this means autocomplete is rigged. It's a mirror of search behavior, with filtering on top. It's worth typing the question you actually have instead of grabbing the first suggestion.

How to control autocomplete

• Turn off trending searches. In Google's search settings, set "Autocomplete with trending searches" to not show popular searches.
• Remove your own past searches. On google.com, suggestions from your history have a Remove option. You can also delete history at myactivity.google.com.
• Clean Chrome's address bar. Highlight an unwanted suggestion with the arrow keys and press Shift + Delete (Shift + Fn + Delete on Mac).
• Stop Chrome sending what you type. Turn off Autocomplete searches and URLs under Settings → You and Google → Sync and Google services.

Autocomplete for keyword research

Because predictions reflect real searches, they're a free way to find how people phrase a topic. Type a word and note the suggestions, then try the word with each letter of the alphabet after it. Predictions don't show search volume, and they skip some topics because of Google's policies, so treat them as ideas to check, not as data.