Leosghost - 10:23 pm on Jul 30, 2011 (gmt 0)

Not sure if Google "force" people to use google.it in Italy for example, instead of Google.com just to get more local results?

Yes, they do..Bing do it also, even more aggressively so..
You host where your primary target audience is..and you use their tld ( fr or de for example for France or Germany ) and you make your content in the target country's language ..and your inbound links from other sites that are also in that country and that language etc..