Google SERPS confusion

Riddle me this ...

[mikey158]

I search <an online tool> for my keywords .. All datacenters show ranking in position 7 or 8.

I search google.com for my keywords ... my site is in position 11.

I ping google.com and get the ip address and verify it is listed on <the tool site>.

Does the google.com homepage redirect to another dc when a search is done? The SERPS that I see do not even exist on anything shown on <the tool site.

If I go to the IP that I got back from ping google.com and use it explicity it mirrors what <the tool site> shows.

BTW, Cookies, etc have been cleared.

[edited by: tedster at 7:34 pm (utc) on Aug. 7, 2006]

[tedster]

In one of his recent videos, Matt Cutts mentioned that even using a specific ip address is no guarantee that you will access the same data. Apparently this is exactly what you are noticing. All kinds of load balancing gets in the way.

[gevorg2006]

Most likely you are geeting "Safe search" vs "Not safe search".

[mikey158]

I tested the Safe vs Non Safe... this has nothing to do with it. It looks as though once a search is performed on the dc that my dns resolves to, it redirects to some unknown dc. I sure wish they would redirect to a dc that had my site listed well in the SERPS :)

Matt or GG ... care to weigh in on this?

[phpdude]

Matt or GG ... care to weigh in on this?

He already did in great length.

It's load balancing as Tedster said earlier and he even describes a scenario exactly like you describe for an example.

Watch his video and you will have your answer.

[steveb]

Been doing this for two months, and effects everybody.

[mikey158]

hey steveb-

this only happened to my serps for the last two weeks. What have you seen, will they eventually match a dc that is seen on the 'online tool', and how long did it take?

[steveb]

No.