Retrospective History

Search the full text of everything you've read online - right from Chrome

Retrospective History is a Chrome Extension that creates a private, locally-stored index from the full-text content of the pages you visit as you browse the web. When you need to revisit a page that you've seen before, simply use Retrospective History's inteface to search for any keywords that you recall from the content. Unlike Chrome's basic History, which only supports page titles and URLs, this extension enables you to search the entire text of the pages you've visited.

How It Works

As you browse the web, Retrospective History works in the background to automatically index the text content of the pages you visit. A red/green indicator on the toolbar icon indicates whether the page you're currently viewing has been indexed. If you want to delete the page that you're currently viewing from the index or add its domain to your ignore list, you can easily do so from the extension's toolbar popup window.

When you need to find something you've read before, select "Search History" from the toolbar popup to open the search page. Enter your query to instantly see matching results from your browsing history.

Please note that Retrospective History does not index certain single page applications and "infinite scroll" style pages. Most social media sites fall in this category. The toolbar icon will indicate whether or not these have not been indexed.

Key Features

🔍 Powerful Full-Text Search

Lightning-fast search across the complete text of your browsing history
Filter and sort results by the date you accessed each page
View the context of your search term within each result
Easily find pages you visited even when you can't remember their title or URL

🔒 Private

All indexed data is stored locally on your computer
No data is ever transmitted from your system
Your browsing history remains your own

🦾 Flexible Configuration

Define a retention period for your history to automatically delete old entries
Add domains to a personal ignore list to prevent indexing sites you would rather not save
Choose between a Light and Dark mode user interface

⚡ Optimized Performance

Lightweight background indexing that won't slow down your browsing
Efficient storage management with auto deletion options available to clear old entries

👤 User-Friendly Interface

Clean, intuitive search interface
Easily see if the page you're currently viewing has been indexed with a red/green indicator on the extension's toolbar icon
Easy-to-use settings panel

Privacy First

Your privacy is key. All indexed content stays on your computer - nothing is ever uploaded to the cloud or shared. You have complete control over what gets indexed and how long it's stored. For more information, view the Privacy Policy.