Got Web Ideas? Fishing for the Answers?
Think Outside The Code First!
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Facts, Thoughts, and Opinions About Web Development and Business Strategy
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Target Topic: It is not uncommon for different Internet users to get different
search results while searching for the same thing at the same time.
As I always tell my clients, don't rack your brains out over search engine ranking.
Here is another great example as to why.
The other day I had a client tell me that their Website was appearing on page 4
in Google for a certain search. I tried it and it was nowhere to be found.
Over the next few days the same thing was happening. They had it on page 4.
I had it nowhere.
Once again, enter the gray area. We could really
have some fun with this.
Speculation as to why? Here are a few things that come to mind:
Google has many different systems for running their search services. You do not
access the same Google server each time. One system may have things indexed a little
differently than another. What Google service you get could depend on your geographic
location, what ISP you use, or server load on Google systems.
Every PC has an IP address, which is fair at determining user geographic location.
How do you know that Google does not alter results a little by some internal algorithm
based on your region? Here is the answer - you don't know.
What if Google altered the results of searching for people based on their previous
searching habits? It's possible. Some may argue that performing searches that heavy
on analysis would be too slow. But how do you know what those processes might be,
how often they are run, if they are run in real time, etc...? You don't.
Google changes their searching algorithms from time to time. Based on the factors
above, you may be using a completely different Google algorithm than others.
Heck, they could even target that new algorithm only to run for requests
coming from one ISP.
Browsers. Google could send different results based on your browser. Why? Who knows.
But considering the above factors, you can certainly see where different browsers
could factor in. Suppose Google wanted to test a new searching algorithm on
a large scale. They could easily set their system to only run that algorithm for
requests coming from Firefox.
I wish I could present you with a list of actual and factual statements from Google
on how all of this works. But I can't. They do not release that information. All
I have is experience. And, in my experience and certainly in the past 2-3 years,
Google results can vary per person. It is easy to see how it could be so. It
is hard not to believe that some, if not all, of the things I mentioned above are true.
Now, I won't lie to you. I just realized this. But I found this forum post from
2004 where someone else found the same thing.
http://www.webmasterworld.com/forum35/2295.htm
And here is another good one
http://www.webmasterworld.com/google/3075300.htm
And one more
http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=984330
I am sure you will find more if you search Google a little harder.
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• Let Your Search Engine Rankings Come to You
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• Faster Search Engine Indexing
Friday, July 11, 2008
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• Web Developers Are, and Should Be, Search Engine Specialists
Tuesday, June 03, 2008
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