Need unique url but require non unique information from other columns
I would do it like this

&lt;?php
#opens conection
include 'conn.php';

echo $_COOKIE["search"];


$search = mysql_real_escape_string($_COOKIE[search]);
$sql    = "SELECT * FROM feedback WHERE url LIKE '%{$search}%' GROUP BY url ORDER BY ratingtime DESC";
#runs the query
$query = mysql_query($sql);
$linecount = 1;

#populates the table with the information
echo '&lt;table id="myTable" class="tablesorter"&gt;';
echo '&lt;thead&gt;
        &lt;tr class ="null"&gt;
          &lt;th&gt;URL&lt;/th&gt;
          &lt;th&gt;Page Title&lt;/th&gt;
          &lt;th&gt;Date Last Modified&lt;/th&gt;
          &lt;th&gt;Average Rating&lt;/th&gt;
        &lt;/tr&gt;
      &lt;/thead&gt;
      &lt;tbody&gt;';

while($row = mysql_fetch_array($query)){

        $sqlurl = mysql_real_escape_string($row['url']);

        $feedback_query = mysql_query("SELECT SUM(`rating ) / COUNT(`rating`) AS avg_rating FROM feedback WHERE url = '{$sqlurl}'");
        $feedback       = mysql_fetch_assoc($feedback_query);

        $encodedurl = urlencode($row['url']);

        echo "&lt;tr&gt;
                &lt;td class'overFlow'&gt;&lt;a href='extra_info.php?url={$encodedurl}'&gt;{$row['url']}&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
                &lt;td&gt;&lt;a href='extra_info.php?url={$encodedurl}'&gt;{$row['pagetitle']}&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/td&gt;
                &lt;td&gt;{$row['ratingtime']}&lt;/td&gt;
                &lt;td&gt;".round($feedback['avg_rating'], 2)."&lt;/td&gt;
              &lt;/tr&gt;";
        $linecount++;
}

echo '&lt;/tbody&gt;
      &lt;/table&gt;';
?&gt;


If improved your query to get the Avg. Rating and added mysql_real_escape_string to prevent the mysql injection vulnerability.