Google.com Inaccessible From The UK?

from the first-i've-heard-of-it dept

I’m a bit surprised by this, but apparently google.com has been inaccessible from the UK for a week. I’m sure our many UK readers will chime in shortly to confirm or deny this, but apparently there’s been a technical problem. Google.co.uk has been accessible this whole time, but the original .com address doesn’t resolve. Two things seem odd about this: the fact that it’s lasted a week and that this hasn’t garnered very much news.

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Companies: google

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Comments on “Google.com Inaccessible From The UK?”

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36 Comments
Aussie says:

Same down under

I thought Google.com has resolved to it’s local Google. domain based on the users geographic location unless they changed their preferences.

A few years back google.com used to resolve to .co.uk until I changed it then the same happened to me in Spain, .es then Ireland, .ie and more recently to .com.au

Anonymous Coward says:

1) Google.com is working fine for me in the UK (Norwich on BT broadband).

If you try to get to “www.google.com” via a web browser you do get re-directed to the .co.uk version, but there is a link on the bottom-right that takes you to .com.

2) The reason that this hasn’t any attention is that google.co.uk has been working all the time, as a lot of people don’t look (or don’t care) if google is either their ‘local’ version or the international / us version.

Jake says:

Just tested it with Tor engaged, and it seems to be policy to redirect users to their local server. As far as I know they’ve been doing this for as long as they’ve had servers overseas, though I don’t use Google myself (for reasons not worth getting into here), and it makes sound technical sense; Google avoid needless duplications of language data on their servers and their users get a faster and more efficient service out of it, though I daresay an option to display the search page in the US in Spanish would be good for business.

And what the hell is he wittering on about here?

However, it’s an annoying one for those internet users who appreciate that on the World Wide Web and a globally connected world, Google users in the UK cannot use Google Search to find a less UK-centric view of Google Search.

Martin says:

Google.com is usually working for me, Google.co.uk on the other hand is usually far less reliable although has been OK recently.

However, it’s an annoying one for those internet users who appreciate that on the World Wide Web and a globally connected world, Google users in the UK cannot use Google Search to find a less UK-centric view of Google Search.

Surely, selecting “the web” as the search option (that’s the default option) as apposed to “pages from the UK” will do this nearly. There will be some give as different datacentres have slightly different data and personalised search setup.

If you really want Google.com, go to http://google.com/ncr or click the Google.com link on Google UK

Mike (profile) says:

Re: Canada is the same

This headline is sensational – its basically the same as saying Google is down in the UK. The same thing has been happening in Canada for a long time, only we get redirected to google.ca.

No, you are missing the point. I know that Google does redirection. But that’s not what the article is saying. It says AFTER the redirection, if you click on the link to go to Google.com specifically, you can’t get there.

Anonymous Coward says:

Re: Re: Canada is the same

No, you are missing the point. I know that Google does redirection. But that’s not what the article is saying. It says AFTER the redirection, if you click on the link to go to Google.com specifically, you can’t get there.

You may as well give up Mike. They don’t understand and probably never will. As long as they can click and drool they think everything is just fine.

Hesed says:

They re cutting us off

NONE of these things work it apears that the deliberate seperation of cultures has gone to another level, Ive always noticed that Americans have no real concept of Europe, I think they are filtering information supplied to the US concerning the terrible decline of their economy my friends overseas have no idea.

Hesed

Adlai (user link) says:

Google already applies geotargeting to automatically force direct requests for Google.com from UK IP’s to Google.co.uk.While there is a link to Google.com on the bottom right of the Google.co.uk homepage, it leads to a redirect error.The result is that Google.com remains entirely inaccessible from the UK.While it would be fun to becry this as a censorship issue, it’s obviously little more than a technical issue.However, it’s an annoying one for those internet users who appreciate that on the World Wide Web and a globally connected world, Google users in the UK cannot use Google Search to find a less UK centric view of Google Search.
—————-
Adlai

Sunshine Coast

Adlai (user link) says:

Google already applies geotargeting to automatically force direct requests for Google.com from UK IP’s to Google.co.uk.While there is a link to Google.com on the bottom right of the Google.co.uk homepage, it leads to a redirect error.The result is that Google.com remains entirely inaccessible from the UK.While it would be fun to becry this as a censorship issue, it’s obviously little more than a technical issue.However, it’s an annoying one for those internet users who appreciate that on the World Wide Web and a globally connected world, Google users in the UK cannot use Google Search to find a less UK centric view of Google Search.
—————-
Adlai

Sunshine Coast

Amdi says:

google has been givin me problems as well… error msgs like 403 error keep showin up… also it sometimes redirects to phishing sites..
at 1st i suspected virus/spyware/malware problem ..
i checked with:
1. Avast 5.0.594
2. Malwarebytes’ Anti Malware
3. Super Anti Spyware
but keep getting nothing from scans….

the problem is that google does work once in a while…and then it doesnt..
i think we have to start forwarding our accounts from google platform to yahoo… maybe that would wake up snoring idiots at google!

and by the way .. im posting from India, so the problem is definitely not confined to UK and Aus.

btw in case u have some really urgent mails to access, and u r interested, u can access ur google account through proxy sites like…try it..
it worked for me (i used hidemyass.com).. speed is on lower side though.

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