Could anyone tell me why when I type the exact same query into Google on my computer, my Mum's, and my Dad's, all who live within 1 mile of eachother in the same town, results appear in totally different orders? No-one is signed in on either computer so it isn't remembering previous searches. Thanks.
Personalised search can still have an affect even if not signed in. you will see a link to "web history" in the top right of the results page where you can opt out until you clear your cookies.
Its the new Google algo that has lead to more personalized and localized searches. Google caffeine AFAIK
You will also get different results with different web browsers too. It would be nice if every query was the same.
More commonly people don't look at various settings Google provides to its users! And the reason people just use Google the way they want without any knowledge on Google search trends! As said above my few members, the reason can be due to personalized search which stored the personal queries information and display according!
Past History, your location and your settings. There are loads of things that can affect the results you see.
I would recommend you check these outs. Each of them may caused a different results 1. If one logged in some Google services while another one does not. 2. If each of them are using different router or network class. 3. If each of them may use a different language under the same Google.com. One may use English while another one may use local language. 4. If one did enable "web history" feature while another one didn't.
Use Google Chrome Incognito Browser, don't log-in to anything. Do this on all your PC, it works for me, & no need to clear your Internet History or any other Cookies for other browsers like FireFox, or IE8.
It can be a lot of different things but the easiest and most probable answer is there internet is different, check if it is. Some internet connections have an ip from a different state or proxy.
Google try to deliver best SERP for each user, user means user profiles, previous search, locations, etc etc.. so it's quite normal when you see different SERP among other PC and users.