Title tag on Google starts with company name then :

[i3MEDIA]

Can someone help me and tell me why Google picks up and shows the title tag as for example: SEOmoz**: SEO Software. Simplified.**

Then if you click through and look at the cache version of the page it shows the title tags as just SEO Software. Simplified. So without the SEOmoz: at the start.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache%3Awww.seomoz.org%2F&aq=f&oq=cache%3Awww.seomoz.org%2F&aqs=chrome.0.57j58.3052&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

Its probably something really easy and I'm going to kick myself when someone tells me but I can't figure out why?

[i3MEDIA]

Ok thanks to you both... I was wondering if it was something to do with the code. So I will have to dig a bit deeper and see!

[SamPenno]

This issue can also be a minor issue within the coding. If you have previously had an auto generated or default page title then the site could also still be adding this as well as the new bespoke title given to the page.

I recently had this same issue on one of my sites and I could not figure out what  was causing the issue until I rewrote the code and it stopped.

[jws8118]

I've noticed Google does this sometimes.  They will auto adjust the actual title they are displaying in the SERP's just like the example you are referencing here.  I've seen this where they move a brand name to the front of the title if you are doing a branded search.  I've only seen this for well known brands.

I have also seen it for queries like "ties"  In this example the actual title of the #1 result is

<title>Ties | Mens Ties | Discount Neckties | Silk Neckties | Mens Silk Neckties | Extra Long Ties | Bow Ties | Cufflinks | Pocket Squares | Wool Ties | Cotton Ties</title>

but Google displays the title in the serp's simply as Ties

I think this is just Google testing different title displays to see how it impacts the interaction of organic vs paid traffic.