potatoes / PoTaToEs / POTATOES... you are looking for potatoes, right!?

Have you ever typed a search query in Google with Caps Lock accidentally on or with first letter capitalization from a copy and paste job? Have you uncovered different search results based on the case sensitivity? Have you tested this alleged glitch (which to date has yet to be publicly addressed by Google -- maybe for a good reason)?

As discussed in this WebmasterWorld.com thread, Google users worldwide from Kansas to India have taken notice that querying the same search term with case variations returns different search results.

Why is this an issue? rustybrick points out that according to Google's Web Search Help Center, "searches are NOT case sensitive" (http://www.google.com/support)

At the onset of our rebranding initiative earlier this year, we've also come to find that the search queries "bigshot" and "BIGSHOT" (all caps, per our new corporate identity font guideline) return different SERP results.

Or was it the result of an adaptive output from self-search or test-search?

Self-search or test-search behavior is arguably atypical in that the search intent is not transactional, but purely diagnostic spot-checking. SEO strategists and website owners are not engaging with SERP results like a regular user, but are rather searching to visually validate the presence of a listing -- and unless Google ever goes evil and taps into your webcam à la Space Odyssey's HAL 9000 for eye-tracking studies (scary), the algorithm will never know which listing you were looking at.

Assumptions:

• You do not have personalized search enabled
• You are submitting back-to-back rapid fire search queries without any listing click-through
• You are querying or proxying from a US-based IP address on google.com (we're located in Kansas City, MO)
• You are performing your test with the same session cookie

Speculations:

Multiple searches in succession without any click-throughs can potentially signal to Google that you haven't found what you are looking for.

As a result, Google might shuffle the top pages to present new offerings on SERP1. jimbeetle nailed it right IMO when he suggested in the WebmasterWorld.com discussion thread that Google could possibly be "return[ing] a newly massaged result set" after each instance of a no-click-through from a succession of widgets, Widgets, WIDGETS searches.

This has been one of the many explanations we give to our clients when they can't find themselves during a heavy duty PPC ad self-search (which we evidently don't recommend), and to a certain extent, I'm speculating that this scenario is analogous on the organic side.

If a user searches for the same query 36 times in a row and appears to show no interest, why show the exact same listings 36 times? This is an opportunity for Google to present more Big 10 choices.

Similarly on a larger scale, if a natural listing yields a low -- dare I say -- "organic click-through rate", a ranking penalty is arguably justifiable as a result of failed social proof, a metric in use as we know with ranking algorithms for Google AdWords ads and YouTube videos, and for spam filtering on Gmail.

The take away:

• Search results are seemingly dynamic in that possible adaptive algorithms shift rankings, even without personalized search. As a matter of fact, searching for the exact same query multiple times using the set of assumptions above has yielded different SERP results for us.
• SERP output isn't necessarily solely dependent on the user input format, but potentially on user behavior too.

Additional considerations:

• Google's Udi Manber, VP Engineering, wrote an unprecedented blog post [link] in which he shared that over 450 algo tweaks were implemented in 2007. That, and the heightened crawl rate frequency from the mass data center deployment and beefing up: the days of 3-6 weeks long static SERP listings are long over!
• Multiple searches in quick succession without any click-throughs are just that: wasted server resources. How does Google treat this? Something to think about.
• Without wanting to sound hackneyed and in the interest of succinctness: ranking is not an end indicator of search marketing success.

If you tell Google that you're looking for potatoes but not clicking and thus making intended use of their search engine services, expect to witness a roller coaster of potatoes in the SERPs!

Jeremy is a certified Google AdWords Professional, a pre-Panama Yahoo Search Marketing Ambassador and an accredited Microsoft adExcellence Member, and prior to BIGSHOT, has campaigned for over 150 SMB clients nationwide in both the organic and the sponsored realms of search engine marketing. Learn more about Jeremy.

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