Most browsers give you the option of browsing in a private window. The name may vary; Microsoft Edge calls it inPrivate, and Chrome calls it Incognito, Whatever it’s called, it sets up a temporary window or tab and discards your cookies and browsing history when you close it. You’ll see warnings everywhere about its limitations. If you’re an NSA whistleblower, you’ll need much better protection to avoid being caught. But here I want to talk about some benefits that aren’t often discussed. They’re especially handy when doing research.
Sometimes you want privacy from yourself — that is, from your previous activity. When you use any website, especially a search engine, what you see could be polluted by the cookies that track your activity. Where you’ve been and where you’re logged in could affect the information a site decides is relevant to you. This can make it harder to zero in on a topic.
When you open a private window, it initially has no cookies. You’re not logged into anything. At least you shouldn’t be; check if that’s how your browser works before putting too much trust in private windows. Your results can still be affected by your IP address, but they’ll be more neutral than they otherwise would be. If you want to change your IP address as well, use a VPN.
If you switch to a different topic, you can close your private windows and then open a new one. That will clear your cookie history again, so your previous search won’t affect the next one.
Another use for a private window is to see how your links will work for other people. A common mistake when sharing links is to provide one that works only for people logged into Facebook or Google. Worse yet, they may work only for someone logged into your account. Try a link out in a fresh private window, and you’ll have a better idea of how it will work on someone else’s machine.
Again, this won’t reveal how the server treats other IP addresses. Content may be geographically restricted, or others may see a page in a different language. A VPN will let you appear to come from a different part of the world, so once again it’s a useful tool in combination with a private window.
When you’re done, be sure to close all private windows you have open. If you have two private windows and close only one, the browser will hang onto the remaining one’s cookie history and apply it to any new private window you start.
One more tip. When you’re doing more than a minute’s work in a private window, keep an extra tab open in it. Too many times I’ve closed a private window by mistake and had to set up its environment over again. Having an extra tab open makes it harder to do that.