Google Chrome tracks how users engage with websites, and this is explained in the Chromium project’s documentation. Here’s a simplified breakdown of what these metrics are and how they’re used.
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What Are Chrome Site Engagement Metrics?
Chrome measures how much time and activity a user spends on a website. This is called “site engagement.” The more time a user spends on a site, the higher the engagement score for that site. You can see these scores by typing chrome://site-engagement/ in the browser.
The engagement score ranges from 0 to 100, with 100 representing a site the user visits frequently and 0 meaning no engagement. The score increases with user activity and decreases over time if the site is not visited.
What Are These Engagement Scores Used For?
These engagement scores help improve the browsing experience by helping Chrome prioritize resources, enable features, and organize sites:
- Prioritize Resources: Chrome uses engagement scores to decide which sites should get more resources like storage or background syncing. Sites with higher scores get more attention.
- Enable Features: Chrome may only let certain features (like autoplay for videos or app banners) be available on highly engaged sites. This keeps the user experience smooth and avoids annoyance.
- Sort Sites: Chrome uses engagement scores to decide which sites to display first or which tabs to keep open when memory is low. This ensures users see the sites they use most often.
Privacy and Data Use
These engagement scores are only used within the browser. They do not sync across devices or get shared with Google. They also don’t apply in Incognito Mode and are deleted when browsing history is cleared. This ensures users’ private browsing actions are not tracked or shared.
What Does This Mean for Google?
These metrics are only used to improve Chrome’s user experience and are not shared with Google Search or other Google services. There’s no reason to worry that Google is using this data for other purposes, as the engagement scores are kept private to each device and cleared when users stop interacting with a site.
In short, Chrome uses engagement scores to optimize the browser for the best user experience, not for advertising or search ranking purposes.
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