Google says its ccTLDs “are no longer necessary”

[real]

Google says its ccTLDs “are no longer necessary” - Domain Incite

Google is going to stop using country-code TLDs for its web sites around the world. The company said today that "country-level domains are no longer necessary" because it's become so good at localization that it doesn't need to have search users visit their local ccTLD domain to figure out where...

domainincite.com

Here’s an update on our use of country code top-level domains.

When you’re searching on Google, we aim to provide the most useful information, and many times that includes providing locally relevant search results. Historically, as …

blog.google

 

[ben]

Useful I guess

 

[Jason]

They are trying to set an example, hoping that others will follow, the real purpose being to further deprecate the importance of domain names and URLs. Google see domains (and memorable URLs) as a threat to them because with a memorable domain or URL people can go off to a website without starting at Google first. This is why they killed the EMD benefit, launched the app store (basically a second Internet that they totally own and control), stopped printing the URLs in search results, stopped Adsense for Domains etc.

Social Media is also playing the same game, creating a walled garden where brands are encouraged to keep pages on the social network where they are just one of millions of serfs in the social network's kingdom, rather than their own domain where they can grow their own kingdom potentially to a similar size. I remember the previous owner of acorndomains lamenting that he had spent something like £4k advertising and building up a wallpaper images section on Facebook, only to have them pull it when someone complained that one of the images was a copyright infringement, and there was nothing he could do. Better to be a king in your own domain than a serf in someone else's.

 

[Hook]

because it’s become so good at localization that it doesn’t need to have search users visit their local ccTLD domain to figure out where they are.

Yeah, recent .uk domain sales clearly disproves this BS. Google release a lot of propaganda when it comes to search, safe bet to ignore everything they say.

 

[Jeff]

I remember the previous owner of acorndomains lamenting that he had spent something like £4k advertising and building up a wallpaper images section on Facebook, only to have them pull it when someone complained that one of the images was a copyright infringement, and there was nothing he could do. Better to be a king in your own domain than a serf in someone else's.

Yes, and here's the thread in question:

https://www.acorndomains.co.uk/threads/facebook-page-removed-with-no-right-to-reply.154493/

It was never established that it was definitely a copyright issue, but that doesn't detract from your point that business owners should have their own website rather than relying on a social media presence.

I would actually go further and say that any business that relies on social media and doesn't have a website is making a clear statement that they're a badly-run business.

Note RobM's confident prediction in post #21 that Facebook would "be gone in 10 years"! Seven years on, do you stand by that prediction @ukbackorder?

Yeah, recent .uk domain sales clearly disproves this BS. Google release a lot of propaganda when it comes to search, safe bet to ignore everything they say.

I don't think Google are commenting on the utility or value of ccTLDs to anyone else. They 're just saying that they, Google, are so clever that they don't need them anymore.

 

[Hook]

I don't think Google are commenting on the utility or value of ccTLDs to anyone else. They 're just saying that they, Google, are so clever that they don't need them anymore.

Ah yeah, I just re-read it, and that was my understanding now also.

You can actually do this with URL parameters already.

https://google.(tld)/?gl={Country_Code}&hl={Languages_Codes}

So you can do:

https://google{dot}co.uk/?gl=ca&hl=fr

Now this would search like you have French language in Canada through the UK ccTLD


Lang codes: https://developers.google.com/workspace/admin/directory/v1/languages

the gl is just 2 letter country codes (UK is GB!)

 

[GreyWing]

Google just took a big hit today, losing in an Anti-Trust case. Likely to be broken up into different parts.

Ironically, if this case had waited a year or two, Google may have been fine. ChatGPT etc are eating into it's market share and in 2 years it may not even account for 60% of the internet searches. I haven't used it for any in-depth search for at least 6 months now.

Result page is absolutely shocking, filled with garbage.

 

[username]

I haven't used it for any in-depth search for at least 6 months now.

Result page is absolutely shocking, filled with garbage.

Same. Agree. I prefer brave now for search. Even if it's not perfect, it's not full of clutter. When I use G search now, I feel like it's doing anything but giving me valuable results. I suppose I would use duck.com if Brave search didn't exist.

 

[Hook]

Yes I de-risked a few years ago from information related queries. Zero click searches has been a risk for years, you think maths questions, currency conversion, quote snippets for specific info - now you have AI overviews.

I stick to markets that their shareholders wouldn't like to be a part of

 

[GreyWing]

Yes I de-risked a few years ago from information related queries. Zero click searches has been a risk for years, you think maths questions, currency conversion, quote snippets for specific info - now you have AI overviews.

I stick to markets that their shareholders wouldn't like to be a part of

My opinion is that it will ultimately swing back around to short EMD's or Short brand name domain names that people can type in - back to the early 2000s. I don't see any other way around it as Google try their best not to show you for free the site you want.

I know Google do massive testing, but they must realise that it's losing a lot of visitors by showing so much gumpf on their results page. They maybe great revenue layouts for people still searching, but is it taking into account those of us that no longer use it because of that reason?

If it were to just show one advert per page, then the results, I'd say more of us would use it. I may even click the odd advert if I didn't feel it was being rammed down my throat.

 

[Hook]

My opinion is that it will ultimately swing back around to short EMD's or Short brand name domain names that people can type in - back to the early 2000s. I don't see any other way around it as Google try their best not to show you for free the site you want.

I know Google do massive testing, but they must realise that it's losing a lot of visitors by showing so much gumpf on their results page. They maybe great revenue layouts for people still searching, but is it taking into account those of us that no longer use it because of that reason?

If it were to just show one advert per page, then the results, I'd say more of us would use it. I may even click the odd advert if I didn't feel it was being rammed down my throat.

I have an adult VOD which gets 1000K+ visitors a month, and I see traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI tools, no idea why they are referring traffic from there but in the logs it still comes up - even with AI there is opportunity, but how exactly you can "SEO" it is a different question entirely - I think in the future there is going to smart people who realise they can rig the AI datasets for their site to turn up.

Google gets abused by QRF a year~ after it is introduced, and I think the same will happen with AI, same methods - new medium.

I also think Google does tread a fine line when it comes to UX and revenue, and in big markets like the UK/US, we only see the good test results, in the secondary markets is where they test all their whacky ideas like having huge favicon, no descriptions, 1 result, 3 results etc.

One good thing about the anti-trust with Google, maybe there is some hope in recovering the parking domain ads

 

[paullas]

I have an adult VOD which gets 1000K+ visitors a month, and I see traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI tools, no idea why they are referring traffic from there but in the logs it still comes up - even with AI there is opportunity, but how exactly you can "SEO" it is a different question entirely - I think in the future there is going to smart people who realise they can rig the AI datasets for their site to turn up.

Google gets abused by QRF a year~ after it is introduced, and I think the same will happen with AI, same methods - new medium.

I also think Google does tread a fine line when it comes to UX and revenue, and in big markets like the UK/US, we only see the good test results, in the secondary markets is where they test all their whacky ideas like having huge favicon, no descriptions, 1 result, 3 results etc.

One good thing about the anti-trust with Google, maybe there is some hope in recovering the parking domain ads

Can i ask, when you say you see traffic coming from ChatGPT and other AI tools. how are you seeing this. what tools do you use to determine if its from AI tools of search engines like google, bing etc.

 

[username]

how are you seeing this.

Referer - HTTP | MDN

The HTTP Referer request header contains the absolute or partial address from which a resource has been requested. The Referer header allows a server to identify referring pages that people are visiting from or where requested resources are being used. This data can be used for analytics...

developer.mozilla.org

and

UTM parameters - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

Choose "first user source" in GA4 if you're using that on your sites. For chatgpt, it will have the value "chatgpt.com".

 

[paullas]

@username thank you something for me to dig into.

 

[GreyWing]

I actually wonder how much of Google's current search stats are not what they seem. If I search ChatGPT, it says "searching the web" then it comes back with the answer in about 5-10 seconds. I wonder if this is searching Google, and Google is reporting that as a real person search.

If it is, then Google's real search volume could be mush less than they are reporting.

 

[username]

ChatGPT is heavily funded by Microsoft, so I'm plumping for Bing search on their back end...