Search Result Difference?

Gadgetman496

I had a situation today regarding searching Google that led me to check a little more & I don't understand
why this is happening. I'll explain & maybe you might be able to clarify for me?

I was searching for local photographers.

When I search for the term "the lane studios" in Google on any machine connected to SMART ISP this it what gets returned.










But when I search using exactly the same criteria on any machine connected to UPC\NTL, eircom or Irish Broadband this is what I get.








(Notice the inclusion of the Google Map in the results of the very first hit) this example is on an eircom connection & the
results are totally different to that of the search on a machine connected to SMART.


What's that all about?

You do a search for something & you would expect to get the same results regardless of which ISP you use, right?


Are Smart caching pages through a proxy or what is going on?


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DogmaticLefty

Did you clear your cookies in both cases?

Perhaps the computer's IP address is a feature that they use when deciding what results to present to the user.

brianwalshcork

I can't give a definitive answer, but, I noticed two things:

1) The URL parameters passed to google in the URL in the address bar are very different... i..e you're searching for the same terms but the other serach options are completly different.

2) You've got the google toolbar installed in one browser and not in the other. I don't know for certain, but I'd bet this allows google to do all sorts of jiggery pokery!

I don't think that it's a really scientific test - more than the ISP changed between the screenshots. Were the screenshots taken on different machines?

Brian

Spear

I get the first response (same as Smart) on my UPC connection.

Gadgetman496

DogmaticLefty wrote: »

Did you clear your cookies in both cases?

Perhaps the computer's IP address is a feature that they use when deciding what results to present to the user.

Yes cleared everything on all the machines I tried.

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Gadgetman496

brianwalshcork wrote: »

I can't give a definitive answer, but, I noticed two things:

1) The URL parameters passed to google in the URL in the address bar are very different... i..e you're searching for the same terms but the other serach options are completly different.

2) You've got the google toolbar installed in one browser and not in the other. I don't know for certain, but I'd bet this allows google to do all sorts of jiggery pokery!

I don't think that it's a really scientific test - more than the ISP changed between the screenshots. Were the screenshots taken on different machines?

Brian

Yes the screenshots were taken on different machines & maybe the Google Toolbar has a relevance???

As for your comment on the URL parameters, I've noticed that they change even if you do exactly the same search more than once on the same machine???



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yoyo

I have UPC & my google search results are presented as they are in your second screen, I would think it could be another toolbar or a addon causing the problem you have, I very much doubt the ISP would bother changing google search formatting

Nick