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Google search results vary based on which computer I use?

Something very strange is happening with my site's listing in Google. If I am at work and I type "childcare nvq courses harrow" into Google we appear about second in the rankings; however, if I am at home (about 10 miles away) we do not appear in the listings at all, even if I enter the unusual company name "auralern" in the search engine.

Why would we be listed if the search takes place in one location and not listed if the search takes place in another? I am baffled!

Dave's Answer:

That's one I haven't heard before, I must admit. Thinking about it, though, I imagine that it's got something to do with the browser preferences you set within the Google world, preferences that you might well have tweaked months or years ago and then forgotten.

To see your preferences, go to the Google home page and you'll see:

Notice the tiny "Preferences" on the right side? Click on it.

You'll now see a variety of different options you can specify, including interface language (including both Klingon and Latin. Really.), search language and the setting that I expect might be the culprit:

Google Safesearch Filtering: Preferences

It's possible that your work and home computers have different settings, which will give you different results, sometimes with even the most innocuous of searches.

Of course, it's also possible that your workplace has a different sort of content firewall getting in the way or, perhaps, its domain is registering at Google as one based in a different geographic region than your home account?

Finally, Google uses lots and lots of different servers to respond to a search query. Perhaps you're somehow getting different results because you're hitting different servers? If you could bring your home computer into your office and try a search it'd be very interesting to see what kind of results you get!

Check out those search preferences, see what kind of results you get.

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Comments

Another possibility is that the user has Google's Personalized Search turned on in one location, but not the other.

According to Google, signing in to Google Personalized Search (beta) will allow you to: "Get the search results most relevant to you.
Personalized Search orders your search results based on what you've searched for in the past. Early on, you may not notice a huge impact on your search results, but they will continue to improve over time as you use Google."

Posted by: Brian Peterson at February 25, 2006 8:45 PM

Google does have various data centers around the world and as they update the various algorithms to calculate page ranking there will be some lag time in the results. Google also uses some load balancing to determine what data center you actually get your results from and can 'localize' your search results. For a good look into the inner workings of Google check out Matt Cutts website and blog.

Posted by: na at February 26, 2006 10:05 AM

I'm sure the problem lies within something suggested above, but I would add that there are forms of malware that will affect search results. Adware that puts certain companies as the top result, or even masks the companies as a fake link and sticks it on the top of a google search to be deceitful, as malware tends to be.

Posted by: Matthew Poer at February 26, 2006 5:59 PM

My Google PR is 4 some days and other days it is zero. This has been going on for weeks. It's completely unpredictable. Explainations?

And then, one of the few pages that has no title, tags, or description has the PR of 5. It's the only page on the site with a 5. All the others are 4 or less. There's no reason to believe it has more incoming links than other pages. Again, possible explanations?

Posted by: Ron at March 17, 2006 9:32 PM

Ron, most likely you're seeing your query routed to different Google servers. Some of them will be in the middle of an update while others will have already been recalculated based on the latest algorithm tweaks. In this sort of situation, your best bet is to just wait a few days and see what happens.

Posted by: Dave Taylor at March 18, 2006 10:19 PM

Dave:

I just stumbled across this problem and I'm searching for an answer. The interesting part is how I work with a Laptop next to my office PC and they both get the same search results. When I take work home on the same laptop, I get the same search results as my computer at home.

The results from home are different from the results at work.

The fact that I'm using the same computer in both places and I can compare to the computers permanently in each place tells me is has something to do with how Google treats me based on my Internet connection.

It's all very interesting!

Posted by: Mark at January 15, 2007 6:46 PM

I get the same problem. It is nothing to do with settings. I tried on 2 brand new computers running the same software only difference is different ip's and locations and I get different results.

Posted by: Dave at January 7, 2008 11:26 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!