Google will stop using Google.co.uk, and other local versions of its search engines.
Users will instead be sent to the global version of Google – no matter where they are in the world.
The company says that its work to make the results of any search locally relevant mean that users now no longer need to look at a specific version of the site for their country.
For years, Google directed people to a version of the site focused on their country. UK users would see Google.co.uk, for instance, or Google.ng in Nigeria and Google.com.br in Brazil.
Since 2017, Google has been phasing that out, and showing the same information to people whether they were searching on their country’s version of the site or the global version at Google.com.
Now that improvement means that “country-level domains are no longer necessary”, Google said.
That means that visitors to the local address will instead be sent to Google.com. That will “streamline people’s experience on Search”, it said.
The change will come gradually over the coming months and might come with some prompts to change search preferences.
“It’s important to note that while this update will change what people see in their browser address bar, it won’t affect the way Search works, nor will it change how we handle obligations under national laws,” Google said.
