Technical question about variations in Google's search results?

Question

I've seen comments in a few different places on the Net about why the ranking of various sites on Google may vary from query to query based upon which of their servers handles the request. I've seen search results vary by a few places among the top 20 or 30 results when I search the same term at different times of day. (No, I'm not OCD--just an information junkie.) Is it possible to direct queries to specific servers that Google uses and do a side-by-side comparison of search results, or do Google's computers just route queries to whichever set of servers has the least amount of traffic at any given time, and because of the dynamic nature of information online the various servers aren't necessarily perfectly in sync?

OK, specific example (which maybe I should've provided earlier :-)):

http://www.google.com/search?q=jesus&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&start=0&sa=N


At least the top three search results when someone Google's "Jesus" keep fluctuating. On some searches, the Wikipedia page is the first item. On other searches, the ccci.org link may be the first item. You might have to check back throughout the day to notice variations in the rankings. It seems to vary more past the first 10 results, but it varies nonetheless.

Most of the top links when someone Googles "Jesus" would probably not be related to sites that are paying for advertising, so while ad content might affect searches where certain sites running ads come up, it wouldn't necessarily always be the case. Let me do some digging and I'll see if I can find a couple of the links about variations in Google's search listings.

I may have just found the answer to my question at this link:

http://www.topranker.in/google_top_ranking.htm

But since you're the only one who has answered so far, Thirdrockphoto, I guess you'll get the 10 points. :-)

Answer 1

I didn't get your assumption that different Google servers will yield different search results. How did you determine this? If you could possibly be mistaken about this, I have what I think is a more plausible explanation.

Sites alter their ranking in results by paying money to Google. More money for keyword association yields higher ranking in results. Google and Yahoo both engage in this lucrative practice. It is regulated by an auction for keyword association and thus for position in search results. This payment process continues day and night so it may cause a shift in position between different sites as the day goes by.