How to contact Google

UK hosting company not in Google UK search

[stavs]

I want to inform Google that Google UK appears to be missing an entire IP range used by my UK hosting company. (note: they are showing in Google.com).

There are literally thousands of websites hosted by this company in the UK which do not show up in Google UK (when the UK filter radio button is clicked) unless they have a co.uk extension - this seems to be the case through the entire IP range, I have checked over a hundred .com sites hosted by this company.

Can anyone tell me how I can get this message across to the Google engineers? I cannot express in words how frustrating it is to think that my emails to Google will not be read.

There must be an email address that Google use for this type of occasion - surely it is in their own interest to know about this problem?

anyone? Googleguy?

I would be eternally grateful for any assistance.

[ciml]

> deafening

I tried emailing about this a couple of weeks ago when we had a thread on the UK search IP geolocation think. I shan't hold my breath, I'm sure that Google get a lot of email.

[lazerzubb]

Just came back from a conference session, there it was stated that Google didn't not use ip for selecting which sites are regional, this was stated by a non-Google employee though (editor of search engine watch)

[Mike_Mackin]

Oilman & I once discovered a large Canadian ISP who was not in their database or something. It had to do with ads showing in Canada for a product that could not be sold to Canadians.

Anyway I contacted [e-mail] and they told me that Google had contracted with a third party to maintain that database. This was some time ago but try that Email and ask for help.

[Crush]

ha ha..contact google ( deafening roar of laughter). Do what we did. Spend thousands of dollars on the sponsored link and get a google rep.

[heini]

>it was stated that Google didn't not use ip for selecting which sites are regional, this was stated by a non-Google employee though (editor of search engine watch)

Hmm... so they do what? Guesswork? Lottery? Interesting.

[lazerzubb]

Domain endings, maybe use whois info, forgot to ask that one.

I also thought it sounded strange.

[ciml]

They do use domain endings, but not only.

For example, you need either a .uk domain or a UK IP for the pages from the UK [google.co.uk] search. Use of WHOIS info was discounted as the UK index omits plenty of non .uk domains with .uk DNS and other WHOIS information.

The problem comes with some hosting providers, who are in the UK but for some reason don't qualify for UK Google inclusion.

[stavs]

> stated that Google didn't not use ip for selecting which sites are regional.

seems an odd statement - certainly contrary to popular belief

> The problem comes with some hosting providers, who are in the UK but for some reason don't qualify for UK Google inclusion.

I just found out today that it is impossible to ping my site without it timing out. The traceroute also times out before it finishes its 'route'. I mentioned this to the host company in the context of looking at possible causes for my problem - and they told me it was to do with their firewall settings. They told me they would allow Google to 'ping' or 'look up' (or whatever they do!), if Google would instruct them which IP range they use - i.e. set some rule that lets Google in but keeps others out.

I'm past caring now anyway - going to change host in the next month. The current host are totally rude on the phone and completely unhelpful - I don't feel good about being with them anymore.

Anyway - taught me a valuable lesson: when you go with a new UK host, check that .com sites on their servers are listed in Google UK first.

oh and - you get what you pay for in this life ;)

[ciml]

stavs, you needn't worry about whether Google can ping your site. A lot of hosts now block ICMP to avoid some types of DoS attacks. The important thing is that they can reach you on TCP port 80 (and that your server sends something sensible in return;)).

> Anyway - taught me a valuable lesson: when you go with a new UK host, check that .com sites on their servers are listed in Google UK first.

While Google tell us that we should just build and let them come, I think that your lesson is a valuable one.

[stavs]

Hi Ciml

> The important thing is that they can reach you on TCP port 80 (and that your server sends something sensible in return).

That's interesting (can't say I understand it though) - how would I go about checking if this is possible? is there a resource you can point me to.

Many thanks

[ciml]

Good question. At a guess, I'd say that Google Translate or the WAP proxy would be good ways to check. Alternatively, your server logs will show if they managed to reach you.

[NFFC]

>> stated that Google didn't not use ip for selecting which sites are regional.

Hmm, you know that may even be correct.

stavs, try this tool
[visualroute.visualware.co.uk...]

[stavs]

good resource, NFFC - thanks.

Tried it and its not possible to complete a traceroute to our two sites - so location does not show up.

I'm not an expert in these matters but I'm now fairly convinced that my host company are causing the problem - their security settings probably make it impossible for Google to determine the region.

[heini]

NFFC - I agree it may not be IP directly. But whatever they are using - the error ratio is much larger than with visualware ;)

[Bronte]

A lot of UK hosting companies are really evasive about where their servers are actually based. When I was looking into this I always checked to see if their own websites, and other sites hosted were showing up in Google's UK index... a lot weren't (despite pretty pictures of their 'UK datacentre'). In the end I went for US hosting with a .co.uk URL to save money and effort.

[jmccormac]

heini posted:

...it may not be IP directly. But whatever they are using - the error ratio is much larger than with visualware

Just for Ireland, Google would have an error ratio of about 50%. This is based on at least 50% of Irish websites being hosted outside of Ireland. I am not sure of the figure for the UK but it would probably be lower than 50%.

It could be that Google is relying on its linkage algorithms to determine what is based in a certain country and combining that with .uk websites to generate a fast and nasty index for each particular country. If it is using a geolocation service then that service will miss a hell of a lot of domains. You cannot reliably link all domain names with a country just by using geolocation. (I know because this is the kind of stuff I am working on for Irish (and European) sites. :))

Regards...jmcc