If you want to opt out, Google makes it super easy.
Through Boing Boing, I found further explanation of the changes and the 4 easy steps--illustrated with screencaps---at Electronic Frontier Foundation's
"how to remove your google search history before google's new privacy policy takes effect"
Without the pix, here are the steps:
1. Sign into your Google account (like, just sign into your gmail).
2. Then, go to https://www.google.com/history
3. There, click "remove all Web History."
4. Click "ok."
This removes your history and also pauses further collection (until you opt in again).
