Google.com switches to Google.co.uk
 

I only just noticed this. If I enter www.google.com in the address bar on FF, IE, Chrome, it now auto resolves to www.google.co.uk. I am in the UK and have never noticed this behaviour - has anyone else noticed it and found a fix?

Update: this www.google.com/ncr allows me to have it not redirect. But I don't like having to do this.

Update 2: I think I "fixed" it. If it redirects me to google.co.uk, at the bottom of the page I click on Go To Google.com and it now seems to let me override it at will now. Still an odd behaviour that has only started happening.

This has been happening for years - and not just UK. Any country I visit, Google redirects to the local site.

For me, I've always been directed to, for example, Google Deutschland (google.de) whenever I've been in Germany. I usually just use the "google.com in English" button to get to the U.S. site, unless I'm doing a search where I want Germany-specific results.

Google detects where you are by your IP address and redirects you to that country's page. One place I worked I always got sent to google.ca since our IT was done in Canada.

Its not limiting your search options, afaik. We have the same thing happen in Aus, and has been that way for a number of years. Anytime I want to limit my search to Australia, I have an extra radio button to select that option.

Well I have no problems now with it and it is back to what was normal for me after following my own "fix" in Update 2. It has never used my IP address like that to redirect me from .com to .co.uk until yesterday - perhaps a cookie expired for some sort of preference that I may have had. Google's recommendation is to bookmark www.google.com/ncr.

While it doesn't (to my knowledge) limit your search options, it does seem to affect the results and the rankings. When I know I want something specific to a certain country I always point myself to their Google site, and seem to get better results.

I have been using that link for a year and although it usually works at times it is too often useless. Too bad the many brains at Google cant come up with a real fix.

MisterNice

Not sure what you mean by a "fix" - what is happening is intended. The people who are visiting a country and want it to redirect to another site (eg: the US one) are going to be in the minority.

The "fix" is that you can have a cookie (that will eventually expire) that tells the localised site you want to go to the other one. If you clear cookies, or use a different computer, how are they meant to know you don't want to be on the local site?

If I type in google.com I expect it to go to google.com. If I type in google.co.uk I expect it to go to google.co.uk. I don't need it dumbed down, or for google to make an arbitary, wrong decision on my part based on an ip address.

This is intentional. It's a tough problem to solve since 98% of users can't figure out how to get to their local site and type Google.com when .co.uk or .de would give better results. From Google's perspective, 98% of people get localized content (which is a good thing) and the other 2% can use techniques like the above to get to the general google.com search box. They should indeed make it easier, but that's the price you pay for a very basic homepage. It's hard to add lots of options without making it cluttered.

In my experience this redirection only happens when you type google.com (which is, of course, what an American would do). If I type in google.co.uk then, no matter where I am in the world, I get taken to the .uk site. Same when I type google.de (i.e., I get taken to the German site)

I wonder if typing google.us would take you to the US version of Google? (You do have a country code - lots of people don't realise this!)

This happens to me when I have a newly installed browser. But after I click on the go to Google.com, it will remember it won't go to the local page the next time I type Google.com.

You are in the minority (a very tiny minority, compared with the rest of the population of that country). Again, how are they supposed to know this isn't what you want to do without using a cookie on your browser?

Precisely. ^

Typing google.us will take you to the US ("google.com") page.