Google: "Pages from the UK"

[Johan007]

Ok is it have or me Google been making this mistake from day 1.

When you do a search and click on the "pages from the UK" radial button you get poor results inlckuding US sites. URL also has a unclean query string:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?num=2...UK%7CcountryGB

Now when using Firbird you not only get better UK only results but also a cleaner query string (and my sites rank higher) :

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=goo...0&cr=countryUK

[I, Brian]

I just ran a test with both IR6 and Firebird 0.7 and saw absolutely no difference.

I did find "goole.com" highly ranked, though!!!

On the one hand, Goole is a shuddersome place, about 20 miles up the road from here (Hull) towards Leeds on the M62. It's a dead-end place, with a serious herion problem, and is dominated by a large chinmney that is shaped almost exactly like a...well, see the attachment.

HOWEVER, jolity and insults aside, take another look at the results - why the heck should "goole.com" be rated so high in a search for Google? It's a poor PR4 site, does not mention "Google" anywhere, and even uses "Ask Jeeves" as the site search engine. A quick look at the backlinks shows only one immediate example of "Goole" being mis-spelled "Google". It would be very interesting indeed if Google's Applied Semantics tech is reading "Google" as a mis-spelling for "Google", and therefore returning it as a relevant result. I'm going to need to look into this further.

Oh - and here's a pic from the net of Google...er, I mean Goole's...big chimney.

[Johan007]

for "movies" UK pages shows US site www.fast-rewind.com:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...UK%7CcountryGB

for "movies" Firbird search shows no US site
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mov...0&cr=countryUK

[alansmith]

I am having similar problems. If i search for Internet Developer Uk. I appear first in the main google index. In the uk index I am nowhere for internet developer with or without the uk.

[I, Brian]

Originally Posted by Johan007

for "movies" UK pages shows US site www.fast-rewind.com:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...UK%7CcountryGB

for "movies" Firbird search shows no US site
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mov...0&cr=countryUK

I don't understand this - I have IE6 and Firebird installed, and both are giving myself exactly the same results and search strings between them.

Are you using a network, by any chance?

[Johan007]

I bet you are getting the messy query string - right?

You have to use Firbirds in built search in the top right and change that search engine or add a new search engine to Google.co.uk from the plug in section.

I have shortend the query string to this:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mov...0&cr=countryUK
See unlike the Google search the top site is not a US websites.

[EDIT]
bottom line countryUK and countryGB are not the same:

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=movies&cr=countryGB
(My sites not there)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=movies&cr=countryUK
(My site is number one)

http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en...UK%7CcountryGB
(My site is number 2) I think this is a mix of the first two urls and can be wrote like this:
http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=mov...UK%7CcountryGB

[Edit x2]
I did more investigation thats kida shocking!

* countryGB are sites that are .com but they own the .co.uk pointing to it.
* countryUK are sites that are .co.uk . They may or may not own the .com pointing to it

This is real useful for SEO if you are are uk company. Its a shame the sites are mainly US sites who have got hold of a .co.uk cos that is a bich!

Is this anything new... if not it is to me

SUMMARY:
It is better for a UK company to be .co.uk and own the .com than the other way round. The bad news is that US sites sites can buy the .co.uk and be in the UK results that kinda sucks for UK people cos its hard beating US site.