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    4. Google Query Contamination.... Are you seeing this??

    Google Query Contamination.... Are you seeing this??

    Behavior & Demographics
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    • EGOL
      EGOL @cozyweb last edited by

      Thanks!  I am seeing this with my location turned on or turned off.  However, we only see this in the FireFox browser.  We tried Chrome and IE... and Safari on phone but did not see this.

      What do you say when a customer calls and says no two people can get the same SERP to appear?

      I think that is much more true than it was a few years ago.  And, as time goes by few and few people are seeing the same SERPs.

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • EGOL
        EGOL @Mcarle last edited by

        Thanks!  I didn't know that!

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • BobLongman
          BobLongman @Mcarle last edited by

          Yes, this just happened to me, too.  I don't know how long they keep them, though; maybe find out by trying the same thing later in the day, and a day, a week, a month later, and finding where it ends, or how quickly it changes from your own change of location (like, say, going from Long Island to Philly in a day).

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
          • EGOL
            EGOL @JustDucky last edited by

            ahhh.... now I might understand where "ducky" comes from!  🙂

            JustDucky EGOL 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • JustDucky
              JustDucky @EGOL last edited by

              Egol - I am a layman when it comes to SEO.   I began noticing strange results around 3 weeks ago.  I was not observant enough to begin to define the issue and did not think to run your experiment.  I believe my results began to change (or changed more frequently) around the time of the March 23, algo update.  Hope this helps.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • Mcarle
                Mcarle last edited by

                Google has been doing this with adverts for a while, I have been in the same room with a person, on the same "page" & seen totally different ads for each of us... (I guess he never searched for high healed shoes)

                Another thing I have noticed the MORE I search for a term the MORE it pops up in ads...

                If I search once for red chair then no biggie, but when I spent an entire evening searching for a chaise lounge....I got ads for that damned chaise lounge for weeks....

                SERPS have been different by location for years now.

                I don't doubt at all that SERPS are going to be even more customized by what you "search for"

                EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                • EGOL
                  EGOL @EGOL last edited by

                  I saw "kayak" in your query and thought that you might know about this type of ducky....

                  http://www.komar.org/faq/travel/vacation/green-river-rafting/rafting-day-4/2009_06_05_6963-green-river-rafting.jpg

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • EGOL
                    EGOL @Mcarle last edited by

                    I wonder if some of the chaise lounge ads might have been triggered by remarketing cookies?

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • KTaylor
                      KTaylor last edited by

                      This has happened to me recently as well. However for me it was for seemingly more disparate queries related to coupons. I don't remember the specific merchants but I had searched for something like 'finish line coupons' and subsequently searched for 'target coupons' and was still seeing ads for finishline coupons on the SERP for the latter query. Clearly, they have some work to do on this.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • Alex-Harford
                        Alex-Harford last edited by

                        Interesting, but like you, I hope they don't make something like this permanent. Increasingly we're being treated like we're stupid and can't do anything for ourselves.

                        Here in the UK there's no sign of it. I've tried UK specific county names as well as the Georgia then guitars combo originally mentioned, in Chrome and Firefox.

                        I get all sorts of strange adverts that don't fit my interests or searches at all - for the last two or three weeks I've been getting a Muslim dating website in Ad placements on my work and home PC - both have different Google accounts. I haven't searched for religious terms, dating, or anything at all I can think of that would be related.

                        EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • Mcarle
                          Mcarle last edited by

                          I just ran a test on this last night:

                          I used two ipads with safari both in the same room using the same wireless network.

                          1. Searched for Miami coffeehouses, Miami bookstores, Miami hotels & such, THEN I searched for "steakhouse"

                          2.  Searched for Chicago coffeehouses, Chicago bookstores, Chicago hotels & such, THEN I searched for "steakhouse"

                          On the "Steakhouse" search the first matched with a local SF steakhouse, then the next TWO were for Chicago & Miami steakhouses, then the places was our local city of Oakland, & the last few results also matched for national steakhouse chains...

                          So yes, it looks like Google is in fact adapting the SERPS to your personal search strings....

                          EGOL 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                          • EGOL
                            EGOL @Alex-Harford last edited by

                            I agree, it stinks up my SERPs.  I don't want my queries blended.

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • EGOL
                              EGOL @Mcarle last edited by

                              Thanks!  That's a new variant - and I didn't know that it works on Safari.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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