Google has begun phasing out country-specific domains like Google.co.in, Google.it, and Google.com.au in favour of a unified global domain Google.com. The change, which took effect on April 15, aims to simplify how users access localized services by using real-time location data rather than relying on domain suffixes.
Previously, users would access different localized Google services through country-coded top-level domains (ccTLDs), such as Google.co.uk in the UK or Google.fr in France. Now, regardless of which domain a user enters, they will be redirected to Google.com, and their search results will be automatically customized based on their physical location.
“Today, we’ve updated the way we label country services on the mobile web, the Google app for iOS, and desktop Search and Maps,” said Evelyn Kao, Product Manager at Google, in an official blog post. “Now, the choice of country service will no longer be indicated by the domain. Instead, by default, you’ll be served the country service that corresponds to your location.”
This means that if a user is in India, Google will serve content relevant to India, even though they are accessing Google.com. If that same user travels to Japan, the search results will automatically localize to Japan. Once they return to India, the service will adjust accordingly all without changing the domain.
The move is part of Google’s broader effort to streamline its services and provide a more consistent and intuitive user experience. While this shift enhances real-time relevance, users can still manually adjust their search region settings within Google’s settings menu if they prefer to receive results from a different country.
Although this update may take some getting used to for long-time users familiar with country-specific domains, Google believes it will ultimately provide a more seamless experience especially for frequent travelers and mobile users. The change reflects the evolving nature of web services in an increasingly global and mobile-first world.
