PhantomGremlin may be referring to Google's personalized search results[0]. This can be turned off though, either through account settings or opening a private

PhantomGremlin may be referring to Google's personalized search results[0]. This can be turned off though, either through account settings or opening a private window, I think. However, it seems you can't shut off location-based personalization, at least while logged out. For example, search "pizza" without quotes in a private window. In addition to showing you a map with nearby locations based on geolocation, the actual results will also include pizza places near your geolocation. I can imagine that there are probably scenarios where that kind of personalization might negatively affect someone searching for general information, although I can't think of any particular use cases off the top of my head. [0]:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Personalized_Search https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Google_Personalized_Search