Quote:Traditionally, Google has maintained a large number of country-code domains such as google.de or google.co.jp to better distinguish between American-English Google users and users who wanted localized search results.

Soon, users from all over the world won't be able to access any other Google Search domain than google.com. Attempts to load any of the country-code Google domains result in a redirection to the main google.com website.

Google announced the change this week on its The Keyword blog. The company says that its "ability to provide a local experience has improved" over the years and that it has become this good, that "country-level domains are no longer necessary".

The details:

• The change will roll out gradually over the course of months.
  
• Some users may be prompted to re-enter some of their search preferences when they are redirected.
  
• The change won't affect "the way Search works".
  

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