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Why does private browsing change search results for the same topic?

tinkerbelle
tinkerbelle
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I have never intentionally used private browsing but I find myself in that mode on the odd occasion. No idea why.

My concern is that I get different search results in private mode than I do in default mode using Google. Searching for a particular topic in google.com.au finds it top of the results but searching for it in private browsing finds it on the fourth page of the results. Can someone please explain why the differing results from the same search term?

I have never intentionally used private browsing but I find myself in that mode on the odd occasion. No idea why. My concern is that I get different search results in private mode than I do in default mode using Google. Searching for a particular topic in google.com.au finds it top of the results but searching for it in private browsing finds it on the fourth page of the results. Can someone please explain why the differing results from the same search term?

All Replies (3)

cor-el
cor-el
  • Moderator
  • Top 10 Contributor
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This might be caused by cookies send to the server and whether you are logged on. A major difference between a regular window and a private window is that the private window doesn't use the disk cache and use a separate cookie jar and not the cookies used in the regular window.

jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
jscher2000 - Support Volunteer
  • Top 25 Contributor
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Welcome to the Filter bubble.

Or should I say, welcome to the outside of the bubble.

Modified by jscher2000 - Support Volunteer

tinkerbelle
tinkerbelle Question owner
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cor-el said

This might be caused by cookies send to the server and whether you are logged on. A major difference between a regular window and a private window is that the private window doesn't use the disk cache and use a separate cookie jar and not the cookies used in the regular window.

Cor-el, thanks for your response. It seems to me that the reason the results for the same search term differ between a private and default window is that a private window takes me to google.com rather than google.com.au. If a person in Australia just wanted to keep their browsing session private, I don't understand why a private window would refer you to a Google international address. Surely this would take the relevance away from certain search results returned as they would not relate specifically to your own country. In other words, if I tell someone in Australia to search for a specific topic which I know appears on the first page of Google in Australia, if they are in private browsing mode and using google.com, they would tell me they can't find the same information because they can't see it from google.com.

I'm not sure I follow your response re cookies - I have limited knowledge in this regard.