OK, this one really puzzles me. I was googling for a very specific bootdisk for an old computer I recently acquired. On the first page, one of the top results turned out to be a warez site. Of course, I didn't know it until I already accessed the page from work, of all places. Talk about crazy luck. I went home and used the exact same search phrase, preserving caps and punctuation. I ended up with different results than I had from work, even with a multitude of different web browsers and different OSes. Back at work the next day, I did the same search, but from a different PC. Sure enough, that warez site is in the top results again, so I know the results are consistent one way at work, and consistent another way at home. So my question is this: Why am I getting different google results at home than I get at work?

Just guessing here, but the difference could be the way your home computer and work computers connect to the net. Different speeds will probably get different results.

Hmm, I'll have to test that theory when I'm home, even though it doesn't seem too likely. I have dial-up at home, but I do know some places I can telnet into in order to surf at higher speeds. It's worth a shot.

On the main Google Search page is a link to "Preferences" where you may have set them some time in the past at home to filter out the Nasties where at work they have not. Bryan

It's definitely not the preferences (I checked anyway), since I typically disable cookies in most of my browsers for most sites. I often use streamlined browsers like Lynx, Links, and OffByOne for random surfing, mostly for safety and security reasons. Since they store virtually everything in RAM, I have no cookies when I initially launch them.

I believe there are different Google servers that display search results. I had a buddy doing search at the same time different locations, and different results. I also think that the servers from time to time have to get in sink with each other. But who knows everything is always a guess, if Google told everyone how it works everyone would be on the fist page of their search terms. Happy Searching