language specific seach results on google?

different results on an egosearch query

[muesli]

so far i thought google gives identical results around the globe, with exceptions of some tourism-related searches. now i did a search for my girlfriend (firstname lastname) and discover the following:

without interface language preference enabled her homepage comes up third:

[google.com...]

with german, french or spanish language preference she's on first position, with the other 9 results staying in the same order:

[google.com...]

did i miss something here? <>

[edited by: ciml at 7:28 pm (utc) on Aug. 12, 2003]
[edit reason] See Sticky [/edit]

[muesli]

this is proof of a geolocation feature (outside turism-related searches) and nobody seems to bother..?
hmm.

anyway, here go some arguments why this is not some of the usual (?) serp-jumping that comes with the new rolling update or everflux:

• serps haven't changed a single bit since when i discovered this 9 days ago
  
• "hl=de" normally should cause any serp-jumping, as far as i understand technically
  
• my friend's site jumps up from #3 to #1 when changing to german. the site is the only among the top 10 with a european IP and the only one in german language. so it makes sense.

true geolocation!

ps. i sticked ciml the query to countercheck.

[amazed]

hi muesli,

yes there is geolocation now, some people remarked on it for quite a while and no, it is not tourism related.

SERPS are different depending from which country you search.

my theory at present is that it depends on where the links come from, I may be wrong.

[muesli]

yes there is geolocation now, some people remarked on it for quite a while and no, it is not tourism related.

ok, must have missed that. (wasn't around a lot and site search didn't reveal anything, as usual.)

amazed:

my theory at present is that it depends on where the links come from, I may be wrong.

Ciml (via sticky):

So German or IP? Some people talk about language, but we have so little non-English content I don't have a test yet.

from my example above it could be both. a test setup would have to include 4 testpages, all with a unique search term such as "WMtestwordWM":

test page in language 1 hosted in langage area 1

test page in language 1 hosted in langage area 2

test page in language 2 hosted in langage area 1

test page in language 2 hosted in langage area 2

one high PR page with links to the above four

(i could provide webspace hosted in austria (=german language area) and also the high PR page if somebody wants to test.)

we'd find out if it's necessary to relocate webspace to target markets to rank higher or not. while saying that i can't believe nobody in this community has found out yet.

anybody?

[amazed]

I do not think language is likely as world wide language does not really tell anything about the region, and for users and advertising purposes the only interest in geolocation would be region.

[Markus]

It's all about language. You can test it searching for "yahoo". Yahoo's servers for the european subdomains (i.e. de.yahoo.com) are located in the UK and, nontheless, Yahoo Deutschland is at #1 when you have hl=de in the query string.

Myself, I have similar content in German and English on a server located in Germany. The English pages show up first in the SERP having language preferences set to English, the German pages show up first having language preferences set to German.

We've been talking about it here [webmasterworld.com] but others indicated that it's been there for quite some time. Couldn't find it using site search either ;)

[heini]

I'm leaning towards the language theory too. I think language is the main factor in this geo targeting process, but would not discount IPs as well as TLDs being secondary factors.
Interesting to note in this context is also the thread where US members complain about non english results appearing more prominently [webmasterworld.com] in the unfiltered index on google.com. It might be, and I'm just speculating here, that the usual geo targeting had not been applied to those results.

[amazed]

You are right Heini google being google it must be more than one factor :-))

ok: test one: The very German word "wellness"

From Germany I get German sites first - plain web google - what do you get from Austria or Switzerland?

test two: the not so German word "mobile"

From Germany I get German sites first - plain web google - what do you get from Austria or Switzerland?

Or does Google realize Germans, Austrians and all 4 parts of Switzerland speak different languages?

:-))
Have a nice weekend.

[doc_z]

It's all about language.

This corresponds with my obeservations.

... but others indicated that it's been there for quite some time.

One search, but different results [webmasterworld.com]
Google Local Results [webmasterworld.com]

[muesli]

amazed:

test one (..)
test two (..)
From Germany I get German sites first - plain web google - what do you get from Austria or Switzerland?

not sure if this complies with WebmasterWorld's TOS..
anyway, i get german results from austria at the top 2, 3 positions for both queries.

wow, this all to me is the most exciting algo change in the past 12 months!

[amazed]

hi muesli,

I am sitting in the mountains near Austria :-))

to clarify the test - for wellness from Germany I get nothing from Austria in the first 10 results

for mobile from Germany the 3rd result is Austrian rest nothing

for you US people Austrians and Germans both speak German though they might disagree on quite a few issues.

So it is not language - at least in the result for the user. Do you US people get a lot of British, Canadian, South African, Indian, Australian or New Zealand results?

I am actually quite concerned about this geolocation issue, as I am about to launch an English site. shopping around I could not help noticing that yahoo.com US directory is much more expensive and actually charges per year contrary to British, New Zealand and Australian yahoo directories. I have a sneaking suspicion effects on google are different, depending on which directory I book...does anybody know anything?

[muesli]

i could 100% confirm your results here from austria - yesterday. today, the austrian result on #3 for your 2nd search term (i had it, too, yesterday) has disappeared, instead i get the companies 'german sister' on #2 and the holding website on #3.

amazed, i'm getting confused. i was socialized still with the good old monthly updates, with results being equal all over the world. i feel i have to get to know google from the scratch again...

[amazed]

I still had the Austrian result no. 3 this morning but no longer this afternoon - it is a very competitive SERP I suppose.

There is the different browsers different results thing too
[webmasterworld.com...] there was another thread on it too I cannot find now - I have an idea this may be related.