Summary

  • Google, the dominant search engine with nearly 90% market share, is phasing out its use of country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) like google.co.uk and google.de.
  • This change is due to advancements in Google’s ability to provide localized search results regardless of the domain, making the ccTLDs no longer necessary. Traffic will be redirected to google.com.
  • While users will see a different web address, Google assures that the search experience will remain the same, though some users may need to re-enter their search preferences during the gradual rollout.

Google is, undoubtedly, the biggest player in the search engine market right now, with alternatives not even close.

For reference, Google currently boasts an 89.74 percent search engine market share (worldwide), with Bing, the second most ‘dominant’ player, scrambling to stay above 4 percent. The fact that Google pays companies like Apple billions of dollars annually to ensure its search engine dominance plays a big part in Google Search sustaining its market share. At the same time, a constant stream of improvements and new features, and the reluctance to switch to alternatives like DuckDuckGo, Brave Search, Ecosia, and Kagi also help Google’s case.

The Safari logo placed over the Chrome logo.


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Now, in a bid to streamline its various domains, explicitly the country-specific ones, the search engine giant is making changes that would make suffixes to Google.com unnecessary.

Google announced (via 9to5Google) that it has begun phasing out country code top-level domains (ccTLD), with traffic from those sources to be redirected to the primary google.com domain.

There are so many ccTLDs, and they’re all mostly redundant

.google.ad .google.ae .google.com.af .google.com.ag .google.al .google.am .google.co.ao .google.com.ar .google.as .google.at .google.com.au .google.az .google.ba .google.com.bd .google.be .google.bf .google.bg .google.com.bh .google.bi .google.bj .google.com.bn .google.com.bo .google.com.br .google.bs .google.bt .google.co.bw .google.by .google.com.bz .google.ca .google.cd .google.cf .google.cg .google.ch .google.ci .google.co.ck .google.cl .google.cm .google.cn .google.com.co .google.co.cr .google.com.cu .google.cv .google.com.cy .google.cz .google.de .google.dj .google.dk .google.dm .google.com.do .google.dz .google.com.ec .google.ee .google.com.eg .google.es .google.com.et .google.fi .google.com.fj .google.fm .google.fr .google.ga .google.ge .google.gg .google.com.gh .google.com.gi .google.gl .google.gm .google.gr .google.com.gt .google.gy .google.com.hk .google.hn .google.hr .google.ht .google.hu .google.co.id .google.ie .google.co.il .google.im .google.co.in .google.iq .google.is .google.it .google.je .google.com.jm .google.jo .google.co.jp .google.co.ke .google.com.kh .google.ki .google.kg .google.co.kr .google.com.kw .google.kz .google.la .google.com.lb .google.li .google.lk .google.co.ls .google.lt .google.lu .google.lv .google.com.ly .google.co.ma .google.md .google.me .google.mg .google.mk .google.ml .google.com.mm .google.mn .google.com.mt .google.mu .google.mv .google.mw .google.com.mx .google.com.my .google.co.mz .google.com.na .google.com.ng .google.com.ni .google.ne .google.nl .google.no .google.com.np .google.nr .google.nu .google.co.nz .google.com.om .google.com.pa .google.com.pe .google.com.pg .google.com.ph .google.com.pk .google.pl .google.pn .google.com.pr .google.ps .google.pt .google.com.py .google.com.qa .google.ro .google.ru .google.rw .google.com.sa .google.com.sb .google.sc .google.se .google.com.sg .google.sh .google.si .google.sk .google.com.sl .google.sn .google.so .google.sm .google.sr .google.st .google.com.sv .google.td .google.tg .google.co.th .google.com.tj .google.tl .google.tm .google.tn .google.to .google.com.tr .google.tt .google.com.tw .google.co.tz .google.com.ua .google.co.ug .google.co.uk .google.com.uy .google.co.uz .google.com.vc .google.co.ve .google.co.vi .google.com.vn .google.vu .google.ws .google.rs .google.co.za .google.co.zm .google.co.zw .google.cat

The tech giant explained that it originally used country-specific domains to provide users with localized results. However, with advancements over the years, Google has become sophisticated enough to deliver relevant and localized results without the need for a top-level domain. It does so either with your explicitly-granted location, or via IP tracking.

This essentially renders all the ccTLDs useless, with no need for Google to maintain so many of them.

The change will be rolled out gradually over the coming months, suggests Google, and users might be “prompted to re-enter some of [their] Search preferences in the process.” This will likely be a one-time thing for Google to get your location and other preferences right. Additionally, the search giant ensures that while the domain they see in their address bar might look a little different, their search experience will remain the same.