Forum Moderators: open
Thanks.
I'm ranking well for my keywords in it so I for one am pretty happy with it already ;).
I've just worked out how to do a three-way World/Australia/SydneyUni search for my users.
A Whois on google.com.au domain name has the last modified date as December 10 so it looks like it is a recent thing. No doubt someone here will know the full details.
Since I stopped using Yahoo Australia I have missed the local search ability, I have worn out the keys that type 'site:.au' in Google ;).
Personally I hate nineMSN but it (and LookSmart) is the default search page of Internet Explorer in Australia unless you know how to reconfigure it. So I think it is 'popular' but only by default.
What's interesting is that it defaults to searching the web generally, and not pages from Australia.
[edit - very soon after first post ;)]
eeek! It doesnt look pretty from my end :( I maintain 2 domains, a .com and a .com.au, both exactly the same domain name. How can I make sure that the .au pages get listed under the Australia Only section, it seems google has written off my .au as mirror content, which it is. But is there some way I can have my pages from the .au site showing up in the Australia only section without drastically modifying the site so the google thinks its different? I don't want to even come close to being banned from google, so I'm looking for the safest way. Thanks for any help :)
[edited by: TheDave at 6:51 am (utc) on Dec. 18, 2002]
What google hasn't taken account of is that to have a .au domain name it has to be related to a registered Australian business or association/body. Like they have a mortgage on the best content!
So for any Australians searching with Google's "pages from Australia", there will be many great Australian content sites (as opposed to retailers) that are not going to be returned in the results they see.
You would have thought that if income from sponsored links is the behind the want for an Australian Google - then a search engine that favours business sites first, doesn't exactly favour the sponsors does it!
Not even NineMSN can be accused of that - at least using Zeal/Looksmart editors allows sites from anywhere to be returned in the Australian directory based on relevancy.
For my site (Australian) I took the view long ago that a .au name was three extra keys I didn't need - and I took the global option when it came to deciding where to host my site.
Seems now the world is contracting on itself and I'll have to create another site with .au domain name just to cover my top keywords on GoogleAU.
By all means have a default Australian Google site, with relevant Australian (related) sponsors - but having an option to search Australian pages isn't exactly gonna do Google's ability any justice. Can't see the masses leaving NineMSN just for .com.au pages!
That's only happening when I use Opera, but not in IE?
It's amazing how many Aussies have still never heard of Google!
Initially annoyed ... what if I WANT to go to google.com? (hint ... type in www.google.com./)
Hey G.OZ, how 'bout a google USA link somewhere on the home page?
Otherwise it's great! Can now tell at a glance in my stats where the traffic is coming from geographically.
Look out WebWombat! (Are you watching Michael?)
Hooroo
JP
Otherwise - the toolbar still performs searches on google.com
Maybe it has something to do with locality preferences in IE 6 on Windows 2000?
I had previously thought that the redirect to www.google.com.au was because of IP detection, ie Google detects an Australian ISP IP and redirects based on that.
Onya
Woz
Thanks ... didn't "see" it, was expecting it to be top right screen ... DOUW! :#-)
JP
Yes the www.google.com.au redirection is based on IP locality detection, and the preference to no longer redirect is stored in cookies.
As soon as the cookies are deleted Google redirects back to www.google.com.au
