search msn using php

Discussion in 'PHP' started by daboss, Oct 19, 2006.

  1. #1
    anyone know why the search results returned from msn for a manual search is different from a programmatic search?

    scenario:
    1. i manually go to search.msn.com and key in "hello" and perform a search
    2. i use php to call the file_get_contents function with "http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=hello" as the parameter

    the result set returned is almost always different in terms of ranking of the individual sites listed - i.e. site 1 may rank no. 1 in the manual search but rank 100 in the programmatic search.
     
    daboss, Oct 19, 2006 IP
  2. wmtips

    wmtips Well-Known Member

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    #2
    I just made a test with query "hello" in the MSN:

    1. With my browser (http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=hello&mkt=en-us&FORM=LVSP)
    2. With PHP using MSN search API
    3. With PHP using file_get_contents
    echo (file_get_contents('http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=hello'));
    PHP:
    And I didn't see any differences in the results.
     
    wmtips, Oct 19, 2006 IP
  3. daboss

    daboss Guest

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    #3
    hmm... weird. i am sure i'm seeing very different ranking results for both the manual/human and the programmed file_get_contents function results.

    can anyone shed some light on this? thanks for your time.
     
    daboss, Oct 19, 2006 IP
  4. streety

    streety Peon

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    #4
    There is a trend towards geotargetting search results so if you are in one country and your server is in a different country there may be slight difference. I'm not sure if it is enough to account for major changes though.
     
    streety, Oct 20, 2006 IP
  5. daboss

    daboss Guest

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    #5
    hmm... i suspect this is correct...

    can a couple people help test out this tool i developed? http://www.sescrub.com/msn_pos.php

    some people tell me that the results are accurate while some say the results are out by a couple of pages. i suspect it's due to geo-targeting... :confused:
     
    daboss, Oct 20, 2006 IP
  6. streety

    streety Peon

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    #6
    I've tried it for a couple of keyword combinations for my blog and the results are accurate.

    I'm based in the UK. The keyphrases I used are fairly obscure so geotargetting might not have much of an effect.
     
    streety, Oct 21, 2006 IP
    daboss likes this.
  7. daboss

    daboss Guest

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    #7
    hey thanks!

    i beginnning to think now that maybe it's not geo-targeting - more of which datacenter the user is using? anyone know if msn's physical architecture is anything like google's - i.e. many datacenters that may not be 100% in sync...
     
    daboss, Oct 21, 2006 IP