Google has announced a big change that will see users redirected to Google.com if they attempt to access Google via a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), such as Google.co.uk or Google.com.br. Historically, these different domains helped Google to localize its results, but thanks to Google’s ability to work out your location, these ccTLDs aren’t necessary.
It’s important to point out that Google isn’t quite phasing out these URLs just yet, rather, it’s just redirecting you from them to Google.com. It seems pretty unlikely that they will ever be phased out entirely, so your bookmarks that use these addresses should still be fine.
Big tech giants always seem to be in trouble with governments around the world for one thing or another. The search giant has said that even though it’s going to be redirecting to Google.com, this won’t change its obligations under the national laws of the countries it operates in.
You will begin noticing the redirection to Google.com in the coming months as the change is rolled out to more users. The company warned that you may be prompted to re-enter some of your Search preferences during the process. It didn’t mention which preferences you’d need to provide.
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