March 2025

There were 1,679 posts published in March 2025 (this is page 93 of 168).

Red Sox pitcher Lucas Giolito to open season on injured list with strained left hamstring

FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) — The Boston Red Sox will open the season with three starting pitchers on the injured list after right-hander Lucas Giolito strained his left hamstring.

Giolito left his first spring training start against Philadelphia on Tuesday after one inning when his hamstring tightened. Giolito told reporters the strain was low-grade.

Red Sox manager Alex Cora said the right-hander will start the season on the injured list.

Giolito will join fellow starters Brayan Bello (shoulder) and Kutter Crawford (knee) on the injured list ahead of Boston’s March 27 opener at Texas.

The 30-year-old Giolito signed a $38.5 million. two-year contract with Boston before last season, but didn’t pitch all year after a partial tear in his right ulnar collateral ligament. He was 8-15 with a 4.88 ERA in 2023 with the Chicago White Sox, Los Angeles Angels and Cleveland Guardians.

Home Remedies Are Actually Better for Kids Than Cold Medicine

This post is part of our Home Remedy Handbook, a tour of the landscape of home remedies from the iffy to the doctor-approved. Read more here.

Children under 4 years old shouldn’t use over-the-counter cough and cold medicines, the FDA has warned. So what do you do instead? Try home remedies, which “may work better than medicines” for young children, the American Academy of Pediatrics says.

The AAP also notes that you don’t have to treat a child’s symptoms just because they have a cold. If your kid is acting normally and the cough or runny nose don’t seem to bother them, no action is needed. This includes fevers: While you should call the doctor for a fever over 102 (or, for infants under 2 months, 100.4), fevers under that cutoff tend not to bother the child and don’t need specific treatment.

When to avoid cold medicines for kids

First of all, let’s look at the recommended age limits for over-the-counter cough and cold medicines. Under 4 years old, the AAP and FDA agree these medicines should not be used at all. Between 4 and 6 years, the AAP says you may use them, but to check with your pediatrician first.

After age 6, these medicines are “safe to use,” but double check that your child is taking the appropriate dose. That means measuring with a syringe or a measuring spoon, not a kitchen spoon (your “teaspoon” could be more or less than a standard teaspoon), and paying attention to the active ingredients in different products. If you give your kid Tylenol and then measure out a cough syrup that includes acetaminophen, you may not realize you’ve doubled up on the same medication.

Some homeopathic products are labeled as being appropriate for young children, but these products are not FDA approved and may be useless or even dangerous. The FDA allows them to stay on the market, but is “not aware of any proven benefits for these products and urges you not to give homeopathic cough and cold medicine to children younger than 4.” (The italics are theirs.)

Cold medicines may not always help, even when they are legit medicines that are given appropriately. Home remedies like the ones we describe here are often more useful.

Get rid of the snot

If your kid is old enough to blow their nose, have them do that. Little ones can often figure it out, if you hold the tissue and ask them to blow. But until they’re old enough, a bulb syringe is your friend. Use this device to suck the snot out (in our house, we called it the “snot sucker”). They’ll fuss as you’re doing it, but then they get instant relief.

If the mucus is crusty, soften it with saline drops, or with warm water before trying to remove it. You can buy saline drops at the drugstore, or make your own with this simple recipe from AAP:

Add ½ teaspoon of non-iodized salt and ¼ teaspoon of baking soda to 1 cup (8 oz) of warm water. Stir to dissolve the salt and baking soda. You should use sterile, distilled or previously boiled water for nasal washes.

Help them to stop coughing

Honey works at least as well as cough syrup, and some studies have found it actually works better. The AAP recommends giving children 2 to 5 milliliters of honey (so, a teaspoon or a bit less) as needed to thin the mucus and reduce coughing. A spoonful of honey before bed may help with nighttime coughing.

The exception, as you may have guessed, is that infants under 1 year of age should not have honey. Not in food, and not as a cough syrup. There is a risk of botulism from spores in the honey. From toddler age on up, our immune systems can handle the spores, but the risk is higher for babies.

Keep the fluids flowing

Fluids help because when we are well-hydrated, mucus is thinner and easier for the body to get rid of. This means giving kids water, chicken soup, or whatever other liquids they will gladly slurp down.

Babies who breastfeed should continue to do so. If they have trouble feeding because of a stuffy nose, use that bulb syringe first. You can also consider giving them breastmilk or formula in a cup or a bottle.

If the air in your home is dry, a humidifier can help to keep mucus membranes (like those in the nose) from drying out. If you’re using a device, try a cool mist humidifier filled with filtered or distilled water. Or get some humid air for free by having your child sit in the bathroom when somebody is running the shower.

When to go to the doctor

Very young babies (2 months or younger) should be seen anytime they have a fever over 100.4, the FDA says. Call the doctor for any child if their fever is above 102, if they have stopped eating and drinking and may be dehydrated, if they have a persistent headache or persistent ear pain, or if they seem to be getting worse and not better.

And make sure your child gets seen right away if you see signs that they are having trouble breathing. These could include blue lips, labored breathing, wheezing, fast breathing, or the ribs showing with each breath.

Max Fried strong, Paul Goldschmidt drives in four runs as Yankees beat Tigers

The Yankees continued Grapefruit League play as they beat the Detroit Tigers, 8-6, on Thursday afternoon.

Here are the takeaways…

– Max Fried fared pretty well making his second start of the spring. Former Yankee Gleyber Torres struck for a solo homer in the bottom of the first, but that was the only serious damage against him in four innings of work. The southpaw allowed just that one hit and struck out four batters while throwing 57 pitches (35 strikes).

Fried now has a 4.26 ERA this spring. His addition on a historic eight-year deal this offseason became even more important to the Yankees this week with Gerrit Cole set to undergo Tommy John surgery and miss the entire 2025 season.

The Yanks will need Fried to stay healthy and pitch like the ace he was during his eight years with the Braves.

– Jasson Dominguez has been having a bit of a rough time both at the plate and in the field thus far this spring, but he put together a strong showing in this one. The youngster finished 1-for-3 with a walk and his second home run to get the Yanks on the board against Jackson Jobe in the fourth.

– Paul Goldschmidt‘s showing he may have something left in that veteran bat of his. He followed up Dominguez’s blast with a solo shot of his own, and then drove in two more runs an inning later with a double down the left field line. The 37-year-old now has four extra base-hits over his last three spring games.

– Austin Wells continues to be a catalyst out of the leadoff spot — reaching base two more times with a walk and a hit and scoring two runs. The young backstop is now hitting an impressive .360 with a 1.167 OPS through 25 spring at-bats.

– Right-hander Fernando Cruz, who was acquired this offseason from the Reds, continued his rough start to the spring. He allowed back-to-back doubles to Colt Keith and Javier Baez leading off the bottom of the fifth to bring his ERA to 10.13 — but he did recover nicely, striking out the next three batters.

– Tim Hill also struggled for the first time this spring. The southpaw had put together four scoreless appearances coming into the day, but he allowed two runs on three hits in his lone inning of work.

Upcoming schedule

Allan Winans takes the mound as the Yanks continue their spring slate against the Phillies on Friday at 6:35 p.m.

5 reasons why the ‘boring’ Detroit Pistons are worthy of your attention (and Shaq’s too)

Hall of Famer, TNT commentator and G14 classification enthusiast Shaquille O’Neal recently made some waves with a pair of unflattering statements about the fightin’ Detroit Pistons.

First, Shaq dismissed Detroit as a boring team unworthy of attention because they were “four games under .500” (Note: they are eight games over .500) and “not winning no f***ing championship.”

Then, during TNT’s “Inside the NBA” on Tuesday, Shaq appeared to offer an olive branch to the Pistons and their faithful, praising All-Star guard Cade Cunningham and the team’s general willingness to “play hard” under head coach Chauncey Billups.

Just one problem with that: While Chauncey Billups was synonymous with the Pistons throughout the 2000s, leading the franchise to six straight Eastern Conference finals appearances, a pair of NBA Finals and the 2004 NBA championship, and while he is currently an NBA head coach, he is not the coach of the Detroit Pistons. Billups, in fact, coaches the Portland Trail Blazers. J.B. Bickerstaff coaches the Detroit Pistons — and has done so with such aplomb that he’s probably going to wind up at or near the top of a lot of Coach of the Year ballots come season’s end. (Though presumably not Shaq’s, if he has one. Is he going to get one? Do those come with G14 classification?)

When his commentator colleague Candace Parker called out the mistake, Shaq responded by … reasserting that the team he was just praising was beneath his notice.

“You know, first of all, I don’t watch Detroit,” he said. “How about that?”

Yeah. How about that?

In any event: Perhaps you, like Shaq, haven’t gotten around to checking in on the Pistons all that much this season, owing partly (maybe mostly) to the fact that they haven’t had the benefit of playing on national television all that much this season. Well, I’ve got some good news: They’re going to be getting at least another handful of national TV games in about a month or so, because the Pistons are on pace to make the playoffs for the first time in six years.

You’ll probably want to brush up on them before then. So: In honor of a team that sits eight games over .500 for the first time since January of 2009, here are five things worth knowing about the 2024-25 Detroit Pistons, who’ve been one of the best stories in the NBA all season long … even if not everybody’s been following it.

One reason why the general audience might be a little slow to pick up what the Pistons have been putting down? The last time they heard anything about Detroit, it was about how last year’s Monty Williams-led model was threatening to set a new NBA record for consecutive losses, futility and embarrassment. What a difference a year makes: Williams is gone, Bickerstaff is in, and the Pistons have left those bad old days behind.

The 2023-24 Pistons won 14 games all season. The 2024-25 edition tied that mark on Boxing Day, and doubled it before the All-Star break.

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Detroit enters Thursday’s matchup with the woeful Washington Wizards at 37-29 — 23 more wins than last season, with a winning percentage a whopping 39% higher than last season. By both total and percentage, that is, by far, the biggest turnaround in the league this season, topping the Memphis Grizzlies (15 more wins, +30.7%), Cleveland Cavaliers (seven more wins, +26.1%) and the aforementioned Trail Blazers (seven more wins, +16.2%).

(In fairness to Shaq, we really should like what Chauncey’s doing there. We just also have to know where “there” is.)

If the Pistons maintain their .561 winning percentage, they’ll finish with 46 wins — a 32-win year-over-year improvement. That would tie the 1979-1980 Boston Celtics (who added rookie Larry Bird) for the fifth-largest single-season turnaround in NBA history — behind only the 2007-08 Celtics (who traded for Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen), the 1997-98 Spurs (who drafted Tim Duncan and got David Robinson healthy), the 1989-1990 Spurs (who drafted Robinson), and the 2004-05 Phoenix Suns (who signed Steve Nash).

A cynic might ding Detroit by arguing that it had nowhere to go but up after last season, and that any climb is going to look more impressive when you start several sub-basements below everybody else. A less jaundiced eye, though, might see this glow-up as even more impressive than those top-five turnarounds precisely because these Pistons didn’t add any Hall of Famers. They just signed Tobias Harris and Malik Beasley, traded for Tim Hardaway Jr., handed Bickerstaff a roster full of untapped potential, and trusted that he could get more out of it. The results speak for themselves: This year’s Pistons are on pace to finish with the highest winning percentage the franchise has seen since the late Flip Saunders’ final year on the bench back in 2008.

“[Bickerstaff] kind of keeps us on track and lets us know how, since day one, we’re not just out here to do this,” Pistons center Jalen Duren recently told reporters. “We’re trying to make some noise. We’re trying to become a better team. And he’s carried that all season. He’s the guy who’s set the tone for the culture.”

He’s not the only one:

There are two players in the NBA this season averaging 25 points and nine assists per game. One of them is Nikola Jokić, who might be on the way to his fourth MVP trophy. The other is Cunningham, the No. 1 pick in the 2021 NBA Draft, who has responded to playing in less congestion thanks to the presence of legitimate floor-spacers like Beasley, Harris and Hardaway by turning in the most composed, controlled and flat-out best play of his career, and who might be on the way to his first All-NBA appearance.

With more shooters and finishers on the other end of his passes, only Trae Young and Jokić average more assists or points created via assist than Cunningham; only Jokić and LeBron James have posted more triple-doubles. With more openings to penetrate off the dribble, he’s driving to the basket more often than anybody besides Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jalen Brunson, Young and Zion Williamson, and generating points on 71.5% of those drives, by far a career-high. And when defenses try to play him for the drive by sagging off or ducking under ball-screens, he’s become devastating in the pull-up game, whether from midrange (where he’s shooting a career-best 47%) or beyond the arc, where he’s made 81 pull-up triples — more than double last season, and nearly as many as in the past three seasons combined.

You can quibble over Cunningham’s shooting efficiency: 51% on 2-pointers and 36% from 3, marks that establish the gap between where he is and where Luka Dončić, a similarly styled big processing point guard, was at a similar stage of his career. And while that is a big gap, it’s also one between “top MVP candidate” and “All-NBA-caliber huge-usage centerpiece of a team with a real shot at home-court advantage in the opening round of the playoffs.”

Which means that Cunningham has already bridged another very important gap: the one between the seemingly limitless promise he flashed as a prep prospect and the underwhelming-for-a-number-of-reasons results of his first three seasons as a pro. What Cunningham’s producing right now represents potential actualized; a promise, kept.

Hey, you know how much you’ve enjoyed watching Amen Thompson tear it up down in Houston? Well, fun fact: They made two of him!

Ausar Thompson missed the first month of the season recovering from a frightening blood clot issue that curtailed his rookie campaign and kept him on the shelf for more than eight months. After a few weeks of ramp-up time, Bickerstaff slotted the 6-foot-7 havoc-wreaker into the starting lineup, where he promptly began … y’know … wreaking havoc.

He’s averaging 16.2 points per 36 minutes on 57.6% shooting over his last 30 games, to go with 8.2 rebounds, 3.9 assists, 3.2 steals, 1.0 blocks and 6.3 deflections — all while guarding the nastiest big wings and on-ball threats the opponent has to offer. Detroit’s gone 20-10 in those 30 starts, outscoring opponents by 8.3 points per 100 possessions with Ausar on the floor, and allowing just 107.7 points-per-100 — a near-Thunderian rate — with him flying all over the court like a banshee.

If what you like most about basketball is hyper-athletes sprinting everywhere they go, playing physical and uncompromising defense, making the extra pass and eschewing 3-pointers in favor of flinging himself relentlessly at the basket, then I suggest you check this young man out. He might just be your new favorite player.

And if you’re not sick of 3-pointers …

Legendary choreographer Martha Graham once said that dance is the hidden language of the soul. Well, your man Malik Beasley has spent all season revealing the words buried deep within his soul to opponents. It seems to be saying, “Hahahahaha — check this s*** out.”

There’s an irrepressible childlike joy to Beasley wiggling his hips in the general direction of his foes after knocking down a big 3-pointer. And if it seems like he’s getting better at it as the season goes along, it might be because he’s had plenty of practice: The ninth-year veteran has drilled a league-leading 259 triples this season, launching more than nine long-balls per game and connecting on nearly four of them, a 42% clip — all career highs.

Beasley has proven a perfect complement for Cunningham, an ever-present threat either spotting up opposite Cade as a target in the pick-and-roll or as a ghost screener in a small-small two-man game that can tie opposing defenses in knots. Send two to the ball against Detroit at your own peril. Before long, the ball’s probably going to land in the hands of a player who’s blossomed into one of the league’s premier perimeter marksmen, and a below-the-waist shimmy is soon to follow — much to his head coach’s chagrin.

Scoff if you must at celebrating a team that’s a mere eight games over .500 in a league where the Cavaliers, Thunder and Celtics exist. (It’s worth noting that more than half of the NBA’s teamswish they were eight games over .500, but I digress.) Since mid-December, though, Detroit is 27-13 — tied with the Knicks for the fourth-best record in the NBA in that span, behind only Cleveland, Oklahoma City and the Lakers, and a 55-win pace over the full season.

The Pistons rank 10th in offensive efficiency and third on the defensive end over that 40-game stretch — one of six teams in the top 10 on both sides of the ball. Over the past six weeks, that’s up to seventh and third, thanks in part to the bruising interior intimidation and elite rim protection of Isaiah Stewart: Among 216 players to contest at least 100 shots at the basket this season, Beef Stew ranks second in defensive field goal percentage allowed, according to Second Spectrum, holding opponents to just 45.5% shooting on point-blank trie

Since the start of February, only Cleveland and Oklahoma City — the two best teams in the league, two historically excellent regular-season squads — have a better net rating than Detroit. The Pistons won 14 games last season. Their preseason Las Vegas over/under was 24.5 wins. They enter Thursday’s play neck-and-neck with the Bucks and Pacers in the running for fourth, fifth and sixth in the East; multiplepostseasonprojectionmodels now have them as not only a near-certainty to finish above the play-in, but with a better-than-20% shot at fourth.

Skeptics can dismiss Detroit as an also-ran fattening up on soft-serve competition, owing to its 10-19 record against opponents above .500 and its 27-10 mark against those below. Recent wins over the Clippers and Celtics, though — and tight losses to the Cavs and revamped Warriors — suggest that they’re capable of more than just gatekeeping, which is something nobody could have predicted back in October … and which is kind of what we’re all looking for when we tune in on any given night, right? Something unexpected, something fresh and new — a zag from the chalk, a burst of blood in the chest.

Surprises like these Pistons don’t come around all that often. It’s worth celebrating and savoring them when they do … even if it means having to learn some new names, and figure out who, exactly, is coaching them.

Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont explains the Luka Dončić trade was ‘about the future’

Dallas Mavericks owner Patrick Dumont explained at a speaking engagement last month that the Luka Dončić trade was about the “future” and creating the “most competitive team.”

Dumont was a guest at the Real Estate Council’s Bank of Texas Speaker Series on Feb. 13 and discussed business matters as well as the shocking trade of Dončić to the Los Angeles Lakers for Anthony Davis.

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“Tough decisions are never easy and a part of leadership is looking at risk and looking at all the factors of a decision and being willing to act at that time and look to the long-term and not only think about the short-term or how it may be received immediately,” said Dumont.

Dumont noted how the Mavericks were 26-23 at the time of the trade and that teams that were around them in the Western Conference standings were improving. Now that we are over a month into the Dončić-for-Davis swap, he feels the team is ready to begin an upward trend.

“For us going into the trade deadline last year, we were not competitive, if you recall, we were not a playoff-bound team and we were able to do some things to reconstruct the roster and enable the team to become very competitive, and after the trade deadline last year, we actually had the best record in basketball. Which was a big accomplishment and we got to the championship games and we didn’t win and so we had to decide: how do we get better?” Dumont said.

“What can we do to improve our team? And so we looked at our trajectory during the season and realized that we did not get better, but the teams that we competed against, some of which we beat, did get better. So this was a decision about the future. If you look at our roster today and who we have, we feel like we position ourselves to be incredibly competitive against the best teams in the NBA.”

In an interview with the Dallas Morning News last month, Dumont cited “character” and “culture” as reasons for the trade and said there were no financial motivations behind it.

Since the trade, the fanbase has turned sour against the organization; Davis has played only one game after suffering an adductor injury; Kyrie Irving has been lost for the season with a torn ACL; and the Mavericks have a 7-10 record, while Dončić is averaging 24.5 points, seven rebounds and eight assists for the 40-23 Lakers, who sit fourth in the conference.

Dumont described making the trade as “hard” and “emotional,” and he understands the fans’ frustrations. Going forward, he’s hoping the organization can win back those disillusioned supporters.

“I heard from the fans, I respect their voices, I listened, we know that this wasn’t easy,” Dumont said. “If we lost any of our fans’ trust, it was hard and I apologize, but I hope over time we can regain that trust through hard work, and that’s our plan. And hopefully people will believe in the long run that what we did was the right decision. Time will tell.”

Edwin Diaz bounces back, Brett Baty reaches base twice as Mets fall to Red Sox

The Mets lost to the Red Sox, 3-2, on Thursday afternoon as their spring training slate continued.

Here are the takeaways…

– David Peterson gave up a leadoff homer but limited the damage after that.

It was an uneven start for the left-hander, though, as he allowed two runs (one earned) on three hits while walking two and striking out one in 3.2 innings.

Peterson, who threw 69 pitches (43 strikes), has a 0.84 ERA this spring.

– Brandon Nimmo was back in the lineup for the first time since missing over a week of game action due to a knee issue that required a gel injection.

In his first at-bat, Nimmo smoked a single to right field. He finished 1-for-3 with a strikeout.

– Edwin Diaz allowed a leadoff double before settling in to retire the next three batters on a fly out, strikeout swinging, and a fly out. He threw 18 pitches, with 12 going for strikes.

It was a bounce back effort for Diaz, who was erratic during his first two spring appearances.

Diaz’s strikeout came on a slider (which Triston Casas flailed at), while his fastball topped out at 96.3 mph.

– Brett Baty got the start at second base.

He cleanly fielded a liner in the first inning but made an error on a hard grounder hit to his right in the second inning.

Baty made a really nice play to get the second out of the third inning, ranging far to his right before making an off-balance throw to first base for the out. He also assisted on the third out — a routine grounder he fielded at the edge of the infield dirt and threw to first.

At the plate, Baty drew a walk his first time up. In the fifth inning, he led things off by looping a single to right field. He finished 1-for-2 with a walk, and has a 1.110 OPS this spring.

With Jeff McNeil out for Opening Day due to an oblique injury, Baty — who is expected to start at second base again on Friday — could have the inside track to the regular second base job to start the season.

– Francisco Lindor drew a walk and stole second base in the sixth inning.

– Ryne Stanek worked around a two-out walk to toss a scoreless inning. He has yet to allow a run in Grapefruit League play.

Highlights

Upcoming schedule

The Mets host the Cardinals on Friday at 6:10 p.m. on SNY.

76ers’ Paul George reportedly consulting with doctors on groin, knee injuries; surgery among options

The Philadelphia 76ers may lose another star to treatment and/or surgery before the end of a disappointing season. 

Paul George is speaking with doctors regarding treatment options for groin and knee injuries that have hobbled him throughout this season. Surgery is among the options being considered and a decision will be made by George and the Sixers next week, reports ESPN’s Shams Charania.

If George is shut down for the 76ers’ remaining 17 games, he’ll join Joel Embiid in a premature end to the season. Embiid’s 2024-25 campaign ended two weeks ago to focus on treating and rehabilitating a left knee that troubled him going back to last season. 

Philadelphia also lost rookie standout Jared McCain to a torn meniscus in early January, ending what appeared to be a Rookie of the Year campaign for the first-round pick.

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George, 34, has been limited to 41 games for Philadelphia after signing a four-year, $212 million max free-agent contract last July. Joining Embiid and Tyrese Maxey, the Sixers with George were expected to challenge the defending NBA champion Boston Celtics for an Eastern Conference title and league championship. 

However, George has averaged 16.2 points and 5.3 rebounds while shooting 36% on 3-pointers, far below the 20.6 points, 6.3 rebounds and 38% 3-point shooting he’s totaled during his 15-year NBA career. In addition to hyperextending his left knee twice and soreness in his left groin, he’s also had a tendon issue in his left pinky finger that required painkilling injections to alleviate. 

Focusing on his health and improving the 76ers’ performance compelled George to take a break from his podcast, “Podcast P with Paul George,” he said two weeks ago.

Whether or not the Sixers choose to move on from George remains to be seen. Yet the team reportedly disregarded trade interest from the Atlanta Hawks and Golden State Warriors before the NBA trade deadline, apparently indicating that Philadelphia wants to pursue the championship aspirations created when George was signed.

The 76ers go into Friday’s matchup versus the Indiana Pacers with a 22-38 record, 13th out of 15 Eastern Conference teams and five games out of the No. 10 spot that would put them in the NBA play-in tournament. 

Why Google Gemini Wants Your Search History (and Why I Won’t Be Sharing Mine)

On Thursday, Google rolled out a number of previously-paywalled Gemini features to free users. You can now use Gemini custom chatbots, which the company calls “Gems”; Deep Research, which runs AI models that “think” through each step of a problem; and upload files to Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking, whether you pay for Google’s AI services or not.

But that’s not all: The company also introduced new experimental feature for Gemini—Gemini with personalization. This feature, which runs on Google’s Gemini 2.0 Flash Thinking model, connects Gemini to your Google apps and services, with the goal of offering you a more personal AI assistant. The idea is, by connecting your Google Account’s information to Gemini, it’ll know more about you and will be able to deliver more informed results tailored to your personal tastes.

It’s certainly a step in the direction that big tech companies are advertising AI to be. But in order to work, you need to connect your search history to Gemini. That’s a lot of trust to put into Google’s AI service, and I imagine a tricky decision for anyone who is concerned about the amount of data we’re feeding these AI tools.

What can Gemini’s Personalization model do?

Google offers a few examples of how this new service might improve your experience with Gemini. You might ask the bot where you should go on vacation, and rather than pull from a series of sources about where other people like to go on vacation, the bot could, theoretically, use your past search queries to focus on a trip it thinks you would like. Maybe you’ve put together a bit of a vision board about heading to the Bahamas or Saint Lucia, and the bot would gather searches related to tropical vacations. Or maybe you’d ask the bot for suggestions for a new hobby and see results based on the types of things you searched for in the past.

I understand the vision Google’s going for here: Rather than have a bot that answers queries the same for everyone, why not have each user’s bot provide answers tailored to their likes and dislikes? That said, it does make me wonder: If the user is already searching for things like vacation spots and new hobbies, wouldn’t they be able to choose for themselves where they’d like to go, or what activity they’d like to take up? If I’m searching a lot about jogging, and I ask the bot what hobbies I should take up, I’m not going to be surprised when Gemini returns results for On sneakers and a local running club.

For Google’s part, this isn’t necessarily some sneaky tactic. In order for you to use the feature, you’ll need to opt in to connecting your search history to Gemini. That’s actually surprising to me, and mildly refreshing. At least Google isn’t making opt-out the default here.

Because the model is a “thinking” model, you’ll see the entire train of thought as part of the results. As such, Google says you’ll be able to see the personal information Gemini used to generate its answer, including saved info, past conversations, or your search history. In addition, Gemini won’t look at your search history unless you’re specifically using this experimental personalization feature. (You also need to have Google’s Web & App Activity setting turned on.) All that to say, it’s not like using this feature means Gemini will scan your search history every time you use it. If you use the standard Gemini 2.0 Flash model, it won’t pull from this personal data with its answer—only if you switch back to “Personalization.”

Should you connect your search history to Gemini?

Here’s what I’ll say: I’m not connecting my search history to Gemini—not yet, anyway. At this time, the feature is experimental, so it isn’t the complete vision that Google has in store for it. (The company has plans to connect Photos and YouTube data in the future, for example.) But even if the feature was fully realized, I’m just not comfortable with connecting my personal search history to Google’s AI.

Don’t get me wrong: I know Google already has access to my search history (though disabling Web & App Activity should mitigate some of that data leaking). It’s not really about that. To me, I don’t feel the need to train Google’s AI on my search history, which is what is happening here. It’s a neat idea to give users more personalized results from AI bots, but by opting into this feature, I’m providing Google free training for Gemini using my personal information. In fact, by requiring Web & App Activity to be enabled, Google is asking for you to share this data with both Gemini and Google as a whole.

Google might have the best of privacy intentions here for all we know, but even still, I’m living by another AI tenant with this decision: don’t share private information with AI. If you wouldn’t want a human reviewer at Google seeing what you’re sharing with Gemini, you probably shouldn’t share it in the first place. Traditionally, I’ve referenced this rule for things like proprietary company information or deeply personal information, but search history can also be deeply private. Do you really need Gemini (or a human reviewer) seeing everything you searched for, just to attempt to make your Gemini results a bit more personal? Those results might be totally inaccurate, anyway.

How to use Gemini’s Personalization model

If you think those tradeoffs are worth the potential benefits of Gemini’s Personalization model, here’s how to give it a try. Open up Gemini, then choose “Personalization (Experimental)” from the drop down. Here, Google will present you with a pop-up, where you’ll need to connect your search history to Gemini. If you’re good with that, choose Connect now.

Google's Personalization model for Gemini

Credit: Google