Conversely, I often find Google's local focus to be counter-productive when I want to search for the most relevant sources in the world (for physical things) or

Conversely, I often find Google's local focus to be counter-productive when I want to search for the most relevant sources in the world (for physical things) or on the internet (for virtual things) and Google insists on giving me local examples of the physical thing or local providers of the virtual thing, neither of which I have interest in.