Google, after a long time of enabling you to get localized search results by visiting it at different domains — like google.com for the US, google.co.uk for England, and google.co.jp for Japan — have taken this facility back and you would not avail it any more from now on.
Now Google claims to be delivering that very search results are relevant to your current location. There is no matter which domain you are visiting. Means that while you’re in New York and visiting google.ru, you’ll get results that are relevant to New York City.
Luckily, it will be possible to escape the results of your country.
You will now be able to change locations, and you can just have to do it through the settings menu at the bottom of google.com ( about which I can bet you have never noticed before because it is hidden in the corner on the desktop and needs you to scroll down on mobile; I did not know it existed before this day). By going to settings and then “search settings,” you will be able to pick a new location introduced by Google.
Google claims that it is making this change because one out of 5 searches ‘is related to location,’ and google feels it is critical to give local information to give the best results.
The feature is seemingly to be tailored most toward travelers: Google says that in case you visit another country, it will automatically serve results local to where you are visiting. After that it will switch back again as soon as you reach home. Before, if a traveler had kept typing in Google domain of their home country, they may not have gotten what Google takes as ideal search results.
The change in not supposed to affect how Google handles legal needs, like the removal of specific results under “right to be forgotten” of Europe.
Google does clarify in an email to The Verge that users will see results removed appropriate for whichever location their search has been set to; however, if the country they are physically in needs results to be removed no matter what, then results would get stripped out regardless of the location they choose.
Apparently this is the way Google has been already operating many of its existing services including YouTube and Gmail.
The policy of always giving local results will be now applied to desktop alongside mobile searches, and Google Maps and the iOS Google app.
