[chris (OP)]

On a new laptop I purchased recently, I have noticed that when I do a search - on google - for an item, if I select one the returned results and then hit "back", rather than going back to the google page of results I end up back on the page I was on before I did the search.

Is IE skipping Google pages like this intentionally, or is there some other configuration I need to set?

[Don_1]

That must be annoying, especially if you've been viewing a number of results and can't remember which page you were on.

I have a similar situation with the new BT Yahoo mail. I open an email, then, in the past, I would click on the back button to go back to the in box. Now, if I click on the back button, I go back to my home page. I now have to click on 'in box' to get back to where I want to be.

As a 'dumb-clutz', I can offer you no assistance, just sympathy.

Damn computers seem to have a mind of their own.

Hold on............... isn't that the general idea?

[RD]

Possibly the browser's cache of stored web pages has become full, so now it can't store a copy of previously visited pages, if so when you go "back" it has to reload  (download from internet) the previous page rather than use a copy from the cache, (coz it doesn't have a copy stored).

Clearing the browser's cache of stored web pages may be worth a try ...

There are instructions on how to do this (and an automatic Microsoft fix) here … http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260897#Video_IE

You can configure your browser to automatically clear the cache on exit: so when you close the browser the cache of stored web pages deleted.
If you don’t do this the cache will eventually become full and you’ll have to clear it manually again. 

http://www.wikihow.com/Clear-Your-Browser%27s-Cache#Internet_Explorer  

[CliffordK]

If you right-click on links and choose "Open in a new tab", then you can fill up a bunch of tabs...  and don't loose your original search page.  It may also help reduce the waiting for pages to open.  Once you're done, just close the main page & all tabs.

If Cache is the problem, try increasing the amount of cache available.

I'm trying to think.  Something was doing that to me in Firefox, but it wasn't Google.  I'll try to look for it again.

[SeanB]

Normally the Google search goes first to a redirect page ( lets Google know which result you selected) then goes to the page selected. If you select back twice very quickly thhen you are likely to end up back at the search window, but this will be hit and miss. Better is to middle click the selected search item and it will be opened in a new tab, leaving the original window open. This works in Firefox, chrome and later versions of IE ( basically any IE other than lame old dead duck 6 and before).