Webmaster Tools, Top Search Queries - why are they so far off?

[PitbullNPythons]

I logged into my Webmaster tools account and noticed under the Statistics tab's top search queries secition it says my postion is x and then i do the search myself but im actually higher or lower. Is this normal. Are they old cached results?

[tedster]

Since people searching from different locations, or with different browsers, or even at different times of day can also see different positions, the most Google can give us in Webmaster Tools is a general representation - something that's "in the ballpark."