Do browsers give different search results?

[philiporchard]

I'm currently checking the ranking of my sites (daily check), and found that when I searched for 'exeter' in Firefox, my site appeared No. 4, but in IE, it was quite a bit further down... (around 20)

I went to Google.co.uk, for both searches, so I would have imagined, it would serve the same results?

Has anyone else found this to be the case? Thanks

 

[Systreg]

Yes, I have previously seen different results for the same term in FireFox and Opera browsers.

 

[philiporchard]

Could we try a quick test...

Please can you search for 'Harlow' in Google, and post the position you get... Thanks

 

[Systreg]

On this occasion, it gives the same results for "Harlow" in FireFox, Opera and IE:

Opera:
Google.co.uk (The web): position 23
Google.co.uk (Pages from the UK): position 21

Firefox:
Google.co.uk (The web): position 23
Google.co.uk (Pages from the UK): position 21

Internet Explorer:
Google.co.uk (The web): position 23
Google.co.uk (Pages from the UK): position 21

 

[bensd]

Could we try a quick test...

Please can you search for 'Harlow' in Google, and post the position you get... Thanks

showing as position 23 of google.co.uk using firefox

 

[philiporchard]

'Harlow' with a cap H
23 in Firefox on PC
23 in IE on PC

harlow with a lowercase 'h'
4 in Firefox
can't find it in IE

 

[mat]

You probably havnt turned off the "customisations based on search activity." thing on google which will meen its ranked higher due to you clicking on it etc in firefox.

Search for something in google, then click "web history" top right.

Then....

Disable customisations based on search activity.

 

[bensd]

'Harlow' with a cap H
23 in Firefox on PC
23 in IE on PC

harlow with a lowercase 'h'
4 in Firefox
can't find it in IE

Still showing as 23rd from me, with capital or lowercase h

 

[philiporchard]

You probably havnt turned off the "customisations based on search activity." thing on google which will meen its ranked higher due to you clicking on it etc in firefox.

Search for something in google, then click "web history" top right.

Then....

Disable customisations based on search activity.

Thanks - thought there must be something odd going on!

 

[mat]

It is a very annoying feature.

It is on as standard, so ofcourse if you clear your internet history/cookies it will enable again.

 

[doodlebug]

Strange, everyone is saying 23 on G but I have you at 18 ?

 

[Flipper]

Wow that’s trippy I had no idea, I have just gone over to firefox, IE 8 was crashing too much.

 

[SuziWong]

Nobody try searching Bing or Yahoo? Or using Safari or SeaMonkey browsers?

 

[crabfoot]

I could help with Safari, but I don't know which result to look for. Please decode ...

 

[diablo]

I'm currently checking the ranking of my sites (daily check), and found that when I searched for 'exeter' in Firefox, my site appeared No. 4, but in IE, it was quite a bit further down... (around 20)

I went to Google.co.uk, for both searches, so I would have imagined, it would serve the same results?

Has anyone else found this to be the case? Thanks

Customised search explains what you are seeing as previously explained. The more you visit a site on Google, the higher it will rank it for you unless you turn customisation history off.

Remember too that the reason others like doodlebug may see it rank slightly differently is that Google uses more than one data centre and they often serve different results. There isn't just one Google database that everyone can access.

 

[philiporchard]

Thanks for all comments.

Have turned the history customisation bit off.

Seems to be at 21 in Firefox on Mac, and Safari on Mac.