Mobile ranking and desktop ranking

Selected answers from the Dumb SEO Questions Facebook & G+ community.

• 
  Scott Clark: How are you checking rank?
• 
  Ajay M Verma: Scott Clark Traffic Travis
• 
  Scott Clark: I think the most likely issue is proximity related. Are you somehow hiding your location on desktop?
• 
  Ajay M Verma: Scott Clark it`s the software that checks the rank so I believe my location has nothing got to do with this. Any other possible issue?
• 
  Scott Clark: You may want to verify this.
• 
  Stockbridge Truslow: Some of it can vary based upon your niche and what you are actually offering on your web site. And for some niches, searcher intent is different between mobile and desktop. I`ll use "restaurants" as an example...
  
  Now, Google is always trying to understand search intent - what a person is looking for when they type a certain search term. In some situations - they`re getting pretty good at it.
  
  Let`s say I`m on a desktop computer and I search for "restaurants" - since I`m at a desktop, I`m either home or at work or something like that. I MIGHT be looking for a restaurant right now, but chances are I`m looking for a restaurant to go to later - for dinner or lunch or maybe even on the weekend.
  
  If I`m on a cell phone, though, there`s a much higher chance that when I type "restaurants" I`m looking for something right now, and close. So the results will be adjusted accordingly. The selection of results will tend to be closer, they will tend to be things that are open now (or very soon), and so on.
  
  There are a lot of search term niches and categories where Google has a good understanding of what people are searching for and what their search intent might be based upon certain factors that aren`t reflected in the search term itself. Even time of day affects certain niches.
  
  Google is much better at this with local businesses than with other sectors too - since it inherently knows a lot more specifics about you from your GMB listing. The local search section (with the map and stuff) is most strongly effected by location (both yours and the searcher`s), but even the normal organic results are often affected by these and other factors.
  
  The question now is to determine why Google might infer different intent based upon mobile and desktop usage, and then determine if that`s a bad thing. (In some situations, Google probably knows your customers better than you and if the people on desktop really aren`t interested in what you have - then it`s not really a bad thing that you aren`t showing up for those people who don`t want to see you anyway).
  
  So... what specific type of Local business is this?