Question on Google's Differentiation

[jid]

Hi everyone,

We have a short question that probably has a very long answer:

What are all the ways that Google differentiates one search result from another?

This is really important for us to know and, up until now, we can't find a really good and complete source that explains this.

Thank you in advance.

[RyanKent]

There is not an official answer. It would be proprietary information from Google.

Google collects an incredible amount of data and is able to use any and all of it to configure customized search for what they deem to be a better user experience.

Some examples (the basics)

• user location

• past user searches from their Google account

• past user searches from their pc (cache)

Google gathers tons of additional information and can use any of it to further customize a search. For example, if you search for "clearing browser cache" then Google COULD determine what browser you are using and automatically use that information to add "Firefox" or your browser name to the query. In my latest test they were not making this change.

Google provides the Chrome browser which is popular and collects even more information. They also provide free Wi-Fi service which collects a lot of data.

Additionally they collect a ton of other data such as your hardware configuration, software and more.