Google redirects me to .de, but Ask redirects me to .nl - why?

[Makaveli2007]

I'm in Germany..not too long ago google would always redirect me to the spanish version. Now Google gets it again and redirects me to the German version (when typing in .com).

However, ask com has started redirecting me to ask nl (the dutch version).

How is this possible? Isn't this done based on my IP address and all those websites should see the same one, thus either all of them should redirect me to .de or to .nl?

Could the reason be that ask's GEOIp algorithm (or what that would be called) is flawed and thus they redirected people from a certain part (or all of) Germany to the dutch version until it's fixed?

just trying to understand how this works, because Im curious about it, now ;)

thanks

[encyclo]

This is due to faulty geo-location by Google - you could ask your ISP whether they are using a new IP block, as that could have been miscategorized as being issued to an entity in a different country.

[Makaveli2007]

thanks encyclo. So basically google categorizes IP addresses into different classes (umm I dont mean c-class, etc. - maybe I should call it "groups") which it automatically assigns a certain country?

thus some people in germany might fall in a netherlands category/group in google's algortihm (simply because the algorithm isnt perfected), and the reason why it started happening on my comp might be because my ISP could have expanded their IP network and given me a new IP address?

is that about it?

[encyclo]

That's the basic idea, but it's less of an algorithm and more a case of a simple miscategorization of the IP address block. IP blocks are assigned by the appropriate Regional Internet registry. For example, in North America (and a few other places) IP addresses are assigned by the American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) [arin.net]. In Europe, IP addresses are issued by RIPE [ripe.net].

If you want to do something similar to Google on your own site, you can find several geolocation databases (some for free) via a search.

[Makaveli2007]

Not trying to do anything like that in the near future on my own site :-), but thanks for the explanation!