Internet Explorer and Chrome showing different SERP's

[blinkybill]

Well the title says it all really.

Same query, different browsers, same computer and different search results.

I thought at first it may have differed because I was logged into my google profile on chrome but I logged out and tested and still different results.

Is this normal ?

[StreamlineMetrics]

My guess is personalization. Did you clear your cache and cookies for both browsers? Otherwise, check out this Q&A http://www.seomoz.org/q/different-results-in-chrome-firefox-and-ie.

[blinkybill]

But that would imply that either IE or Chrome is tracking my searches without my permission, I had assumed all search results were natural unless I turn the personalisation feature on in G+

[CMC-SD]

Search results are personalized even when you're logged out, based on your search history in that browser. You can turn that off, though.

http://support.google.com/accounts/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=54048

[blinkybill]

Thank you for that.. Thats a game changer.. Now the results I thought I was doing well on are all screwed up.

[Unity]

When checking results I use a ranking tool such as the one on SEOMoz, but if I want to do a quick look up for just a couple of terms I use the Ad preview tool in Adwords (you can set by country and it's not personalized).

https://adwords.google.com/d/AdPreview

[CMC-SD]

Yeah, I didn't figure that out for a while, either.

[KeriMorgret]

Using the private / incognito browsing in a browser can also help, as it means it's not using search history from the browser or anything stored in cookies. You're still getting geography in your queries (people in different areas see different results for the query 'pizza' for example), but it is a start.

[blinkybill]

Although still different results between IE and Chrome..