It sounds counterintuitive, but there are times when keeping a short-term history in incognito mode is useful. Generally, we all know that the whole point of using Chrome's incognito mode is that it leaves no trace of your browsing activity. However, whether you're using incognito for nefarious purposes or as a security precaution, sometimes it makes sense to want to keep a browsing history for a short period of time.
One way to do this is to keep all the tabs you've used open so you can go back at any time. Another option is to use the Chrome extension, Off The Record History. When enabled, this extension keeps a browsing history for your incognito browsing sessions.
The key is that the extension only keeps history when the incognito browser window is open. Once you close it, your history is deleted. You can also manually delete your incognito history through the extension before closing the browser.
To use the extension, download and install it from the Chrome Web Store. Then, open a regular browser tab, type chrome://extensions , and press Enter.
This will take you to the extensions settings page. Now, scroll down the page until you find Off The Record History and click the Allow in incognito checkbox. Clicking it will display a warning that the extension may record your browser history, which is not the case in this case, since that is the point of the extension.
Now you can open an incognito window and start browsing. You are free to close all tabs and if you ever need to find a page you visited previously you can click on the extension icon. By default, it will show you all the tabs in a drop-down window. If you need to go even further back, click on the Full history to see your entire browsing history in that incognito session.
If you want to delete the history manually, click the extension's icon, then click the trash can icon in the upper-right corner of the drop-down window.
For those who want to use Off The Record History rarely: Disable the extension from incognito mode by unchecking the incognito checkbox at chrome://extensions and you can check it again later - when you want to use it.
You may not want to keep a short-term incognito browsing history all the time, but there are those moments when it will really save you!
