OK, I've followed your directions, contained herein for erasing the
search history but, surprise, it only deletes the websites you've
asked for. In the search window itself, it doesn't erase that. In
other words, if I put in the key words Abraham Lincoln and I start to
type in "a," it will give me all the searches I did starting with "a."
And, by the way, this would be a better customer service from Google
if it were free.
How do I erase these searches?

Dear Kito, 



"Remembering" search terms is not unique to Google. If you use the
Google Toolbar (as in the bar downloaded on
http://toolbar.google.com), it could remember your previous searches
(and it could be prevented from doing so). If you use Internet
Explorer 6.0 as a browser (which most users do), it could also
remember your previous searches.

If this appears on the Google Toolbar
=====================================
If you click the "Google" sign in the far left side of the bar, you
get several drop-down options:
- One is titled "Clear Search History" - hre you could clear the
history, if you want it to continue and save your previous search
history, but to erase those already done.
- One is titled "options". If you click on this one, you have an
option called "Drop Down Search History". If this option is checked,
un-check it. Consequently, future searches you make would not be
saved.


If this appears on the Google search line (as in the line on www.google.com)
=========================================
This could be your option on the Internet Explorer. 

You could remove this function, called "Auto Complete", like that:

(1) Go to Start  --->  "Settings" ----> Control Panel (or: click on
"Tools" on the top of your browser)

(2) Choose Internet Options 

(3) Choose "Content", in the folders beginning with "General" and
ending with "Advanced" (with
Security-privacy-content-connections-programmes in the middle).

(4) Click on "Auto Complete" and remove approvals next to "forms". 

(5) Click OK, then "Apply"/OK. 

[Note: If your computer is not in English, the names might change, but
not the way to remove Auto Complete].

In addition, you could also delete your history, that is - the sites
that you've visited in the past, by doing another process:

(1) Repeat stages 1-2 in the first instructions. 
(2) Choose the folder "General"
(3) Click on "delete cookies" (if you haven't done it for a while, it
might take some time)
(4) Click on "delete files" and approve deletion also of off-line content. 
(5) Click on "clear history" - you could decide how many days you
would like your computer to keep history in the first place.

Marcy Zitz from About.com provides here more information on the "Auto
Complete" feature and how to disable it:
<http://familyinternet.about.com/library/weekly/aa072501a.htm>

I hope this answered your question. Please contact me if you need any
clarification on this answer before you rate it.

It would help if we knew what browser and operating system you are
using (and, if you have the Google Toolbar, what version).

Google Answers is not designed to be a customer service site for
Google. If you look around, you'll notice that the vast majority of
questions answered here are not related to Google at all. Google
Answers Researchers are not Google employees.

Hello

The problem you have is not in your search engine but it is your "auto
complete" feature of your browser. To reset and clear all previous
entries all you have to do is:
From your browser click on "tools" and then "internet options".
From "internet options" click on the tab "content".
From "content" click on "auto complete".
In the "auto complete" diolouge you should be able to clear your forms
and passwords.
If you would like to stop auto complete from working all together then
all you have to do is clear all the check boxes in the auto complete
diolouge.