Google no longer allows you to change domains to different countries

Until now, you were able to change Google domains to different countries to see the search results for that country. For example, google.co.in showed you results from India, google.co.uk from England and google.com.pk from Pakistan. Google is now changing it forever.

Now, no matter which domain you put in the address bar of your browser, Google will always show you results based on your current location. For example, if you are in Pakistan and you try to search on google.co.uk, you’ll still get search results for Pakistan. Google wants to provide the most accurate information by showing you local results. Here’s what Google has to say on this:

“When you’re searching on Google, we aim to provide the most useful results for your query. Today, around one in five searches on Google is related to location, so providing locally relevant search results is an essential part of serving you the most accurate information.”

Now if you change the domain by typing it into the address bar, Google will still show you your current location at the bottom left corner to remind you that it is serving you localized search results. And if you are a traveler, the countries will switch seamlessly as you move and you’ll always get the search results from the current country you are in.

However, you can still search for a specific reason by a little trick. You just need to click on the settings menu at the bottom right corner of the Google homepage. Click on search settings in that menu and select the location you want to get the results from. So it looks like Google just made it a little difficult to search in other countries, as it did not completely forbid you to search in any other location.

Google is confident that the new feature will serve you better as it will always prefer local results over international. So the local sites will get less competition from international sites and their chances to rank in the search results will get better.

“We’re confident this change will improve your Search experience, automatically providing you with the most useful information based on your search query and other context, including location.”

What are your thoughts on this feature?