5/31/07 - different Google results from Comcast and Qwest

[linsys]

I've built a few sites over the last 2-3 months, I've been waiting for PR to update and for the sites to show up under "Specific KeyWords".

These sites have been indexed for the last 2 months atleast.

Today when searching the sites from Comcast's network (using google directly) my sites show up under "Specific KeyWord", when searching google.com using Qwest's network my sites don't show up for "Specific Keyword".

I'm guessing there must be some update going on, I would assume comcast and Qwest are hitting different Google datacenters?

Anyone else seeing anything weird?

[tedster]

I think your guess has a good chance of being accurate.

In terms of Google "updates" to search results, they happen all the time now. We keep track of those rolling changes in this thread: [webmasterworld.com...] You'll see in there we have more movement than usual right now on some data centers.

About PR -- "real' Page Rank is updated daily behind the scenes -- although PR that shows on the toolbar is only updated about four times a year. The toolbar PR is not something to get concerned about - it's NOT what Google is using to calculate rankings.

[g1smd]

Some data centres are showing some stuff that is very different at the moment. That might not last, or that "new" stuff might spread to the others. Only time will tell; unless Matt Cutts decides to give a clue.

[Robert Charlton]

...from Comcast's network...

FWIW, I have a client who accesses the web via Comcast cable at home, and he is very frequently seeing results that are out of sync with what I see elsewhere.

[caveman]

I'm seeing some off-the-wall stuff, some of it WAAAAY subpar, that I haven't seen on G in years. Reminds me of the old updates, when they got something wrong and let it out of the box, before it was fixed or before all the factors were factored in. Not used to seeing this sort of stuff from G; not just some oddities...I'm seeing some really grusome results.

[trinorthlighting]

It might have something to do with local search. Google will pin point your ip and try to serve up local results. I am not sure how that works with comcast and quest though. Google might not have access to that type of info through them.

[steveb]

"I'm seeing some really grusome results."

It really has that Pandora's box feeling, like the old days when the first burst of an update would include all kinds of spam that would disappear after awhile. but this time it isn't so much spam as extremely trivial sites ranking where they plainly have no business ranking.

[steveb]

The results for my one word term are now totally different... they have gone back to similar ones before the mess of the past couple days.

The older/better/sane results are now showing on google.com, Comcast and qwest.

[linsys]

Not really, Qwest and Comcast are back in sync and my new sites are ranked back at 200-300 again... I was 8th, 10th and 15th yesterday from Comcast searches.

My main sites didn't move through all of this, still ranked #1 & #2 for every local keyword I care about.. But my new sites I've been struggling to get a good rank for, yesterday's Comcast searches (which appear to be linked to the other discussion posted above) gave me hope..

Oh well I guess its the waiting game to try and see what happens.