Different Results in different browsers

[shake10861]

I'm new to SEO, and I'm having a bit of trouble. I'm practicing SEO with my own domain <snip>, and for some reason, my rank is 1st in Safari, but it is more like 5th in Firefox..? I'm so confused! Does google give different ranks to different browsers or is this a cache issue?

[edited by: goodroi at 5:03 pm (utc) on June 19, 2009]
[edit reason] Please no personal urls [/edit]

[shake10861]

oh, sorry, the search terms I used in both browsers was "<snip>"

[edited by: goodroi at 5:04 pm (utc) on June 19, 2009]
[edit reason] Please no keywords [/edit]

[goodroi]

Welcome to WebmasterWorld!

This sounds like Google personalized search results and not a browser issue. Google tracks users that are logged in and tracks users that are not logged in but whose browsers have accepted a cookie from google. Based on your previous behavior on Google.com (searches & clicks) Google will adjust the rankings.

I would guess that you are logged in on one browser and seeing personalized search results and not logged in with the other browser thus seeing non-personalized search results. Even if you are not logged in your search results may be adjusted based on your previous activity on Google.com.

There are a few other possibilities to explain for what you are seeing. It is also possible that you encountered Google running one of their many short-term tests. Another possibility is that it is a cache issue. There are a few other rare issues but I don't want to mention them since they are rare and would probably just confuse the whole situation.

[shake10861]

Wow, thank-you for the timely reply!