aakk9999 - 1:43 am on Feb 24, 2011 (gmt 0)

Hmm, did some test searches to see when google.co.uk appears in resutls and when not.

ernie plasterer manchester (Yes #9)
manchester ernie plasterer (Yes #9)

ernie manchester plasterer (No)
manchester plasterer ernie (No)
+ernie plasterer manchester (No)
ernie +plasterer manchester (No)
ernie plasterer +manchester (No)
"ernie plasterer manchester" (No)

ernie plasterer manchester1 (Yes #8)
ernie plasterer manchester 1 (Yes #7)
ernie plasterer manchester 2 (Yes #7)
ernie plasterer manchester 3 (No)
ernie plasterer manchester 4 (Yes #8)
ernie plasterer manchester 5 (No)
ernie plasterer manchester 6 (No)
ernie plasterer manchester 7 (Yes #6)

ernie plasterer Lancashire (Yes #12, second page - note the word Manchester was replaced with Lancashire!)

Perhaps it is to do how Google classifies itself as a site? A bug in the new site classification?

Compare first two pages of the following searches:

related:www.google.com/
related:www.google.co.uk/

It seems to me that google.co.uk is more related to other services such as small business directory, national rail enquiries, route planner, property portal, shoping site etc. For google.com such sites are much less prominent on the first 2 pages of results.

So maybe it is to do with site classification gone wrong and in very non-competitive queries google site just popped up top?