Google begins unifying search country domains to Google.com

Google has announced that it’s retiring separate country code top-level domain names for search, like google.co.uk or google.com.br, and unifying them under Google.com.

Previously, Google used to have separate country-code domains (like google.ng or google.com.br) so people could get results that were more relevant to their local area.

Over time, however, Google improved how it figures out where someone is searching from.

In 2017, Google made a change to its search engine that allows it to show results specifically optimized for your location.

For example, if you are looking for the best PC parts store on Google.com and are based in the United Kingdom, you’ll see results for UK-based local businesses only.

“Because of this improvement, country-level domains are no longer necessary. So we’ll begin redirecting traffic from these ccTLDs to google.com to streamline people’s experience on Search,” Google noted in a blog post.

“This change will be rolled out gradually over the coming months, and you may be prompted to re-enter some of your Search preferences in the process.”

However, the experience may not be ideal all of the time, as you might see irrelevant results from other countries even when you are expecting localized answers.

As spotted by digital marketer Lily Ray, Google’s AI Overviews, which summarizes internet content, struggles to show relevant location-based results.

In the above example, Google AI Overviews is showing results from the United Kingdom as well when the searcher is from the United States. 

This doesn’t happen when you use the regular Google search, but the AI results will likely get better at understanding localized queries and websites.