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Using NS4, I hold slot 2, 17, 33 (and 17 and 33 are still other sites, not the same as 4 and 5 above). The site ranked #2 is the same as shown using IE, but it is showing a 'last modified' date of Nov 22nd.
I have checked to be sure that the customized settings are the same on each browser.
The number of pages found is close, but not identical. 29,490 in IE vs 29,488 in NS. This is also a much smaller number than I recall, so it looks like the db may have been culled too.
Other people have also reported differing returns for different browsers on AV, and also on Google at times. What puzzles me is why -- what purpose does it serve for the SE to sniff the browser and give different returns?
and why is the last modified date altered?
1) I'm not getting any "Last Modified" dates with either browser right now.
2) Only MSIE ever showed GoTo listings during my checks, and even this was only on 1 out of 5 searches. No wonder I haven't seen Alta's numbers increase very much for my GoTo clients!
3) I sometimes got radically different listings, like #3 on NN and #39 on MSIE, or #2 on NN and "buried so deep I can't find it on MSIE". In one case, only 1 out of the top 10 with MSIE was even ON the page with NN.
4) I copied and pasted the SERP urls from one browser to the other -- I was suspicious of the search.x= and search.y= parameters at the end of the string. But this did not affect the returns page.
5) Now it gets really weird. I'm pretty sure one open MSIE window actually refreshed from the old results to the NN results. Whether the refresh actually occurred or not, in the middle of my checks, all of a sudden both browsers started to give the same results -- the previous NN results and never any GoTo results.
This is a moving target -- I cannot grok.
>I'm not getting any "Last Modified" dates
Tedster they are not shown by default, the option is here [altavista.com].
But it was fascinating poking around like that.
OK, this morning the NS SERP has aligned itself with the IE SERP, right down to the Dec 01 last mod date. (I'll take it, 3 out of the Top 5 -LOVE those themed sites!) *BUT* slots 1 and 3, which are not mine are also showing a last mod date of Dec 01. ???
>Only MSIE ever showed GoTo listings during my checks, and even this was only on 1 out of 5 searches
That's also what I noted.
>pretty sure one open MSIE window actually refreshed from the old results to the NN results.
You may have been watching when they flipped the switch. BTW, I never got an auto-refresh in IE, just NS.
Perhaps your server doesn't give the last modified info, the Dec 01 date could be when it was last spidered [the date the server gave it].
Try [rexswain.com]
