Why do firefox/chrome show a different page than IE8?

Question

When I look at this published Google Docs document, I see the latest version with Firefox and Chrome, but an older version with IE8. Also, screen-scraping it via PHP/Curl gives me an older version.

I've tried CTRL-Refresh in IE8 but I can't get it to show me the newest version. No matter what headers I try to change in PHP/Curl, I can't get it to show me the newest version.

Note: I'm sure I could dig in IE8 and find some cache entry to clear, but what is not happening on this URL that is happening on, say, cnn.com which indeed gives me the current news every time I look at it in IE8 and not some cached version of the site from a couple days ago? e.g. is Google Docs not sending some kind of header that browsers (or at least IE and PHP/Curl) expect in order to not show a cached version?

What am I not understanding about browsers/headers/caching here? How can it be that different browsers show different contents of one page?

_{(source: deviantsart.com)}

Answer 1

Here is the deal: IE is showing the latest version, it's Firefox and Chrome who are caching the page.

Try hitting CTRL + F5 in Firefox and Chrome, if that doesn't work install the Web Developer Toolbar extension for Firefox and pick "Disable Cache" under the "Disable" options menu.

Answer 2

Try navigating to & downloading: http://ccleaner.com

Once you've got it installed, close all your browsers, then run the cleaner. This should clear the cache from all browsers (as well as lots of temp files, etc).

Once done, re-open each browser and try the URL again. I'm guessing you have some cached data from the page in your browsers that's affecting your tests.

Answer 3

Looks like the browser is caching the old data. You could try clearing the cache on your browser and re-open the link.