iPhone: The Missing Manual, 3rd Edition

The History List

Behind the scenes, Safari keeps track of the Web sites you've visited in the last week or so, neatly organized into subfolders like Earlier Today and Yesterday. It's a great feature when you can't recall the address for a Web site you visited recently—or when you remember it had a long, complicated address and you get the psychiatric condition known as iPhone Keyboard Dread.

To see the list of recent sites, tap the button, and then tap the History folder, whose icon bears a little clock to make sure you know it's special. Once the History list appears, just tap a bookmark (or a folder name and then a bookmark) to revisit that Web page.

Erasing the History List

Some people find it creepy that Safari maintains a complete list of every Web site they've seen recently, right there in plain view of any family member or coworker who wanders by. They'd just as soon their wife/husband/boss/parent/kid not know what Web sites they've been visiting.

You can't delete just one particularly incriminating History listing. You can, however, delete the entire History menu, thus erasing all your tracks. To do that, tap Clear; confirm by tapping Clear History.

You've just rewritten History. ...