Well, I tried to do a case study, but once I dug into the data.. there really wasnt that many "ah ha" moments.. i mean you either are the rank the rank tracker says you are, or your not.
So, without all the glory I thought it would be, here are the results after 7 full days.
Notes:
I was logged out when I manually checked. I used a fresh VPS windows install with Firefox to check the rankings. I didn't click any links and had cleared out my history and cookies each serp check.
Term: medical equipment
Microsite Masters:
20th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
21sr: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
22nd: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
23rd: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
24th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
25th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
26th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Yahoo, MSN. Google is off by 1 SERP position.
SeScout:
20th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
21sr: MSN and Yahoo are off by 3. Google is off by 1.
22nd: MSN is correct, Yahoo is off by 5. Google is off by 2 positions
23rd: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
24th: Every ranking reported by MM is correct for Google, Yahoo, MSN
25th: MSN is correct, but Yahoo is off by 5 again. Google is off by 1
26th: Google is off by 4, MSN and Yahoo are both correct.
SEOMoz:
20th: Not showing up
21sr: Not even showing a rank
22nd: Not showing a rank
23rd: Showing up in Yahoo and MSN, but both are 10 positions off. Google is nowhere still
24th: Google is correct, but Yahoo and MSN are still off by 10.
25th: Google is not showing again and MSN is correct, but Yahoo is 5 off.
26th: Not showing anywhere