Random Changes on Page

Can random changes to a page cause a problem with google.

[Harwich]

On my front page I have a section with four images and text links to sub-category pages of my site. Since I have more than four sub-categories it randomly picks 4 of them to display. Also on the left hand bar of every page in my site 4 items that are on special are displayed. Again there are more than 4 so a script randomly determines what 4 to display. This will change every time the page is loaded. This is all done via server-side scripting so the spider/user gets straight HTML.
Recently someone suggested to me that this could cause a problem with Google (other SE's) because they do not like content that changes on every reload and that it could possibly look like cloaking to the spider.
Has anyone ever had an issue with this or know anything about it? Your experience and opinions will be greatly appreciated. Also it was suggested to see what a cloaking detector thought of the page. I have been unable to find one, any suggestions on that?

Thanks
Harwich

[GranPops]

Absolutely no problem in my experience. Have a site that changes on every refresh.

Gets a BOT every day or two.

Granpops

[BigDave]

Harwich,

I would not worry so much about getting hit by a cloaking penalty. What I would worry about is having a surfer come to your site and not find what they were looking for.

If one of your specials that you showed to googlebot was a widget, and the searcher finds your page on a search for "widget" but when the searcher arrives on your site you are pitching a blodget, a dangle, a doodad and a geegaw, they are more likely to hit their back button than to dig around on your site.

What you might want to do is put in some coed to see if the referrer string is a search query and instead of feeding the searcher the random items, feed him items that match his search.

[Harwich]

Granpops,
Thanks for your input.

BigDave,

I am not overly concerned about them not finding the right item because I think it is unlikely that it would pull for a specific specials item. I would think if my site would pull for a specific item that it would be the actual product page that would count. Right now I just need to get them to the site. I do really like the idea about the search string though. I will just have to figure a way to parse out the various forms of search strings in the HTTP_REF. Thanks for the comments and advise.

Harwich.