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A MAJOR problem with google is it's assumption that if you search in English you don't care if the top results are American. I've noticed that on google.co.uk,

A MAJOR problem with google is it's assumption that if you search in English you don't care if the top results are American. I've noticed that on google.co.uk, unless you add 'uk' at the end of your search query you'll always get US sites first [1]. Google clearly lump all English based queries into the same geo-graphical bucket - they never used to do this. --- [1] Yes, I am logged in, and Google knows where in the world I am.

goatinaboat 7y ago
Yes, I am logged in, and Google knows where in the world I am. They never seem to know where you are in a way that would actually be useful to you, but always do for their own creepy tracking reasons.
helij 7y ago
I am not logged in and I always get UK search results even if I search on google.com.
koyote 7y ago
It's even worse when you are trying to search in a language that is not English from a region that is English speaking. I often look for recipes in French or German and it's impossible to find anything. I try to browse to google.de/fr, I try adding site:.fr but it will still try and give me the most English results. My Google search settings indicate I am happy with German and French results but it seems to have no affect...
- TeMPOraL 7y ago
  I have the reverse problem: Google would happily return me Polish-language results for everything, where I almost never want that. For the types of searches I do, there's almost never anything worthwhile in my native language. This, + their annoying attempt at detecting which country I'm in (so I would get German results when in Germany, and Chinese results when in China) led me one day to figuring out the magic URL incantation to force English results, and replacing the search in omnibar with that.
  - NullPrefix 7y ago
    Do share, please.
    - TeMPOraL 7y ago
      I don't have the original anywhere; I used it exclusively on my work laptop two jobs back, which was the only one that moved internationally somewhat frequently (for the rest of my machines, I clicked around Google settings until I got English-language results and that usually stuck). But I think it was https://google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s https://google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s.
NullPrefix 7y ago
It doesn't matter which google tld you use. .co.uk , .ca or whatever it will still give you results tailored to you, not to tld. Just did a random search on a random country tld and still got a result at the top for my city.

goatinaboat 7y ago

Yes, I am logged in, and Google knows where in the world I am. They never seem to know where you are in a way that would actually be useful to you, but always do for their own creepy tracking reasons.

helij 7y ago

I am not logged in and I always get UK search results even if I search on google.com.

koyote 7y ago

It's even worse when you are trying to search in a language that is not English from a region that is English speaking. I often look for recipes in French or German and it's impossible to find anything. I try to browse to google.de/fr, I try adding site:.fr but it will still try and give me the most English results. My Google search settings indicate I am happy with German and French results but it seems to have no affect...

TeMPOraL 7y ago
I have the reverse problem: Google would happily return me Polish-language results for everything, where I almost never want that. For the types of searches I do, there's almost never anything worthwhile in my native language. This, + their annoying attempt at detecting which country I'm in (so I would get German results when in Germany, and Chinese results when in China) led me one day to figuring out the magic URL incantation to force English results, and replacing the search in omnibar with that.
- NullPrefix 7y ago
  Do share, please.
  - TeMPOraL 7y ago
    I don't have the original anywhere; I used it exclusively on my work laptop two jobs back, which was the only one that moved internationally somewhat frequently (for the rest of my machines, I clicked around Google settings until I got English-language results and that usually stuck). But I think it was https://google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s https://google.com/search?hl=en&q=%s.

NullPrefix 7y ago

It doesn't matter which google tld you use. .co.uk , .ca or whatever it will still give you results tailored to you, not to tld. Just did a random search on a random country tld and still got a result at the top for my city.