Google has announced it will discontinue using country-code top-level domains (ccTLDs) for search — such as google.ru, google.by, or google.kz — and consolidate them under the unified Google.com domain.

Previously, Google used different country-code domains (like google.ng or google.com.br) to provide users with more regionally relevant search results.

However, the company has since improved its methods for detecting users' locations during searches.

Back in 2017, Google modified its search engine to begin showing results optimized for specific locations.

For example, if you search for "best PC parts store" on Google.com while in the UK, you'll only see results from local British businesses.

Google states in its blog post:

"With these improvements, maintaining separate regional domains is no longer necessary. Therefore, we'll begin redirecting traffic from ccTLD domains to google.com to simplify users' Search experience."

"This change will roll out gradually over the coming months, and you may need to reconfigure some search settings during the transition."

The search experience might not always be perfect — you may occasionally see irrelevant results from other countries even when expecting local data.

As noted by digital marketing specialist Lily Ray, Google's new "AI Overviews" feature, which provides summarized internet content, doesn't always deliver location-appropriate results yet.

For instance, AI Overviews might display UK-based results even when the user is in the US. This doesn't happen with regular Google search, but over time, the AI results will likely improve at understanding local queries.

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