do uk residents get google.co.uk instead of .com?

when accessing google.com from the UK

[jamie]

hi,

living outside of uk, i am unable to test this. can anyone tell me if google.com redirects to google.co.uk when you try to access it from UK?

and.....

if that is indeed the case, is the default search "pages from the UK" and not "the web"?

thanks

[curlykarl]

"can anyone tell me if google.com redirects to google.co.uk when you try to access it from UK?"

Nope

"is the default search "pages from the UK" and not "the web"?"

Nope

It is .com but you can access.co.uk if you like

:)

[edited by: curlykarl at 9:29 am (utc) on Feb. 3, 2003]

[jamie]

what a great shame, as we score much better for english language only pages ;)

cheers

[engine]

On Google.co.uk there is a choice of web or pages from uk

The default is web

I prefer the search to provide that option as sometimes I'm looking for uk only and others for a global perspective.

[vitaplease]

Jamie,

I have been confused as well on this before:

[webmasterworld.com...]

I think Webtrends also shows Google.com Uk searchers as US ones in its country demographics, as the UK percentages are way to low.

[cornwall]

If you are using the Google Toolbar, you can set it to come up with google.co.uk

[quiet_man]

>>can anyone tell me if google.com redirects to google.co.uk when you try to access it from UK?<<

I don't know if google.co.uk works the same as google.ie here in Ireland, but using a new browser, the first time I try to access google.com it sets two cookies and automatically redirects to google.ie.

This automatic redirect can be overcome by clicking on the link to 'google.com' on the google.ie home page - once this has been done (and another cookie set), typing google.com into the address bar no longer redirects.

A big question would be 'how many users see and click the google.com link'. If they don't, then they will continue to get the regional Google as default.

At the moment this doesn't really matter too much for site owners - for searching, the default on google.ie is 'search the Web', with 'Pages from Ireland' as a separate option. But if this were ever to change ...

[jamie]

"At the moment this doesn't really matter too much for site owners - for searching, the default on google.ie is 'search the Web', with 'Pages from Ireland' as a separate option. But if this were ever to change ... "

yes quite. i am unable to tell the difference between my google.co.uk referrers and .com, but i do know that we rank much better for english language only.

i suppose more to the point is not which google.tld they use, but how many people use the language options to limit their searches.

don't suppose anyone has any data on that?