MSN Redirects

MSN.com redirects to MSN UK if you're in the UK

[Uber_SEO]

I've just noticed something new about MSN this morning. If you're in the UK, and you go to MSN.com, then it redirects to MSN UK. However, unlike Google, it only redirects once you've queried the search engine.

Therefore, the you can actually visit the MSN.com homepage, but the SERPs you'll see are from the UK.

[petehall]

SeventiesMartin
If you run a company that is global, Norton for example, then should they have a site hosted in every location to ensure they can be found by antone globally.

I know you're not supposed to quote specific searches but please look at this search using your example... it should explain what I'm talking about!

search.msn.co.uk/results.aspx?q=symantec&FORM=QBHP

Norton (or rather Symantec) is listed as the "Symantec Worldwide Home Page" at result number 3. Result number 1 is the UK site, which is more relevant to the UK and deserves a higher ranking.

Can anyone think of a global company / site example that cannot be found in UK results? I'm struggling to find one myself - please feel free to prove me wrong!

[glitterball]

It seems that most major global corporations do have a localised version for the UK market. Obviously this was the only criteria used by MS while testing their localised search.

I suggest you do a search for the capital of France in both the .com and .co.uk and compare the results.

[EBear]

If you're in the UK, and you go to MSN.com, then it redirects to MSN UK.

Yes, but if you're next door in Ireland and you go to MSN.co.uk, then it redirects to MSN.com. So searching for a house in my own city tells me that I'd be better off living in Oregon!

Hasn't Bill's paper clip told him by now that the more you try to make software smart the more stupid it seems to the user?

[makemetop]

>Can anyone think of a global company / site example that cannot be found in UK results?

The regional MSN results show a bias towards sites in that region - so, no, I haven't found any global site not listed in the world wide web results so far. All major US corporates show up but below their UK counterparts and are only filtered out completely when UK only is selected.

Ebear - searches in Ireland bring up results from the US>? Now that is funny :)

[EBear]

MMT,

I can see someone in Redmond saying:

"The Irish don't like being called part of the UK. You can really get their back up doing that."

[dcrombie]

In the Netherlands (.nl) the redirect takes you to Belgium (.be) so you don't even see local sites. Talk about double-dutch ;)

Edit: after using "?noredir=1" a cookie is set ("SRCHUSR=NOREDIR=1") which seems to prevent all future redirects

[mack]

Ok heres an example that really used to anoy me.

Lets imagine I am live in "anytown" (uk) and I need a service. I go to an se and type in [industry] anytown

If there is an anytown in the US it used to show that as default. It makes sense to look at things from a local perspective.

Mack.

[steveb]

If I type in moscow, I want sites about moscow, Russia included, not only Moscow, Idaho. It makes zero sense to use a local perspective, in either way. Any moscow site should rank. If you want to refine your own search, do it by adding the word russia or the word idaho.

[cleanup]

Yes, I think that may be the point.

It makes sense (sometimes) to look at things from a local perspecive.

As has been pointed out, there are also a lot of reasons why when searching thats the last thing you want.

So..it comes down to analysis and numbers (and as MMT said here) MSN will have done that and decided in favor of localised search.

My gut feeling is that this is wrong, we should be offered choice After being given all of the web.

I also think that since Google and Yahoo! both tried the SAME and gave it up as a bad job I am very suprised that MSN is going down the same road.

I suppose they will just end up where the others are now after about the same amount of time, about a year or so..

[zeus]

I hate when a search engine redirects one to ones own country, it messes up my search. If want something from my country or another I can go there, another thing is that if you are looking for a product it dossent always matter where it comes from on the planet, so why this redirecting.

[EBear]

> heres an example that really used to annoy me.

I agree that the whole subject of location can work in different ways. In the offline world for example, if I want to travel to the other side of the world I probably want to deal with a tour operator in my own town but take a tour of my destination. A very subtle change in search phrase switches the emphasis completely.

For my mind, I've never understood why SEs always seemed to treat two-word phrases equally, instead of weighting difeerent classes of word. In the example above, if I am looking for a service in Moscow then I am likely to be more interested in other services in Moscow than the same service in Canberra. There are exeptions to this, but failure to acknowledge it not only ruined the SERPS for years but actually affected how people developed and designed sites, with no benefit to the user. Hopefully semantic algorithms will iron out this kind of thing.

[mat]

There are areas where semantics shape results, or at least should do, but to bang the drum again about the example I made earlier, there are also areas where such a decision (the apparent one by MSN) cannot be finessed by semantics alone.

Again, I'm going on holiday to countryX. I'm a relatively sussed web user, have no need for agencies, and am willing and able to go direct-to-source, both for accommodation and for travel arrangements.

Where are a large proportion of useful sites going to be produced? In countryX. They're likely to have not used countryX's TLD, coz that might frighten users - they'll have probably gone for a .com, and why on earth would they host that in the UK? Either way, current MSN thinking will simply never show these, arguably key, results to UK users.

And before the obvious answer to the above question, can producing a mirror site for each TLD - with all the attendant nail-biting - be what MS would want us to do? Pointless work, expense and bandwidth. Truly unnecessary

Now clearly I have a vested interest here, but the above example is hardly micro-niche stuff, IMO.

Sheesh, Microsoft don't even sell hosting and domain names, so that can't be it.

Truly can't see the logic here.

Search: "Show+me+accommodation+listings+for+countryX+that+are really+useful+but+don't+have+a+UK+TLD+or+hosting"

[zeus]

DAMN I cant use MSN at all, be cuaes of this redirecting to own country it totaly messes up what im searching for, I REALY hope they make change to this - just do it like google if you type msn.com you WANT that results NOT from own country.

[dcrombie]

zeus, go to [search.msn.com...] and your problem should be solved (worked for me!)

;)

[zeus]

dcrombie thanks it works, i finaly see the real results again,

[zeus]

It looks like we are back to the normal good SE and we are not messed up by other countries, thats GOOD.

[cleanup]

Yes, Zeus may be good if you live, host and have your buying public exclusivley in the USA.

For the rest of us poor mortals who live in the "other countries" MSN continues to be way off target, especially MSN.co.uk!

[SeventiesMartin]

If my kids are doing homework and look up "Spanish Armada", "Fench Revolution", "American Civil War" etc. they want the best sites to select from on the subject globally, not just what local historians have written.

Software, if I search for software I Intend to download, I want to search the world for the best software. I don't care where the sites is located, I'm going to pay online and download it. So if for example I want backup software, I don't just want what the uk has to offer, there may (almost certainly is) better software elsewhere, I want to search globally for it.

My site stats show that when Joe Public wants a UK site and is using google or Yahoo, he uses google.co.uk or Yahoo.co.uk. He doesn't need his hand holding when he wants to do local searches. So come on MSN, give Joe Public credit for knowing when he wants local or global and how to it himself. But when he wants global and he can't get it, he'll go right back to Google or Yahoo where he can.

I think google SERPS are poor these days, but to be honest, I would rather have poor global serps than good local ones.

[cleanup]

Anyone know what percentage of UK users use .co.uk compared to .com?

[glitterball]

I am sure that I speak for a lot of webmasters, when I say that we would like to see a more competitive MSN (and less dominance by G).
Many here cannot wait to recommend another search engine(after all it was word of mouth that made Google great), however you are going to have to give us something to recommend. The MSN.com results aren't bad, but I can't recommend MSN.com if you are just going to redirect users to a local version that does not list the best websites.

Come on, we want to help you!