On 2/9/07, Timwi timwi@gmx.net wrote:
It's because every search request is routed to a randomly-selected Google server farm. Some of those farms may be running on the newest index, while some may still be waiting for the latest index update. This effect is not unique to the search query you entered; lots of people keep noticing it and wondering about it. I'm pretty sure there is an entry about it in one of Google's many FAQs, but I couldn't find it.
Turns out the proper term is "Google Dance", and googling for that gives us an interesting blog entry. http://dance.efactory.de/
Ah, randomly selected servers - that explains it perfectly. But I wonder why I don't get the effect with IE. Maybe IE caches the server's IP or something.
Steve