Competing business website

I am referring to the use of Google analytics. I querying the idea I had, business partners name, and ultimately went to their site after seeing no one else has a patent on the product.

Your search history is your own, unless you're using a computer that your competitor has access to.

People look up their competition all the time. It's called Competitor Analysis and it's a good, ethical, legal business practice.

Thank you, I understand that part, but from the research I've done the website can see the phrase that you typed in to get there and also the previous pages you visited... Is this correct?

Anyone?

I don't know the answer, but be patient - people are at work in some parts of the world and haven't seen the question yet or are busy.

If I for example search "product idea \ partners name" on Google, and ultimately view the partners website page which I click on, then they get to see how I found them and also the previous research on the web that I've done?
Also.....if I google "apple / car / persons name" and google recognizes the name and i click on their website, does google analytics show the phrase of apple car and their name that found them, even if the first 2 words have no relevance?

They might know someone is researching. And I say might because Google hides a lot of the specifics of search in Google Analytics, due to privacy considerations. But even if the specific query verbiage is listed, it won't say who did the searching. That really is privacy stuff, and Google won't give it up.

And they shouldn't - beyond privacy, it's also a matter of generating Google Analytics reports. These reports are aggregated. Imagine sites with tens of thousands of hits per day. They do not get individual names, and neither does your competitor.

Now, if they conclude it was you searching, that's a different ball of wax. But I doubt you are their sole competitor. If they draw such a conclusion, it is based on a hunch and not much more.