Google is set to discontinue its use of country-specific domains, consolidating its search experience under the global Google.com domain. This change, announced on April 15, 2025, marks a significant shift in how Google delivers search results to users worldwide. The rollout will occur gradually over the coming months.
Historically, Google has utilized country code top-level domains (ccTLDs) such as google.co.uk (United Kingdom), google.fr (France), and google.com.br (Brazil) to provide localized search results. This approach ensured that users received information relevant to their specific region. However, the company has since developed more sophisticated methods for determining a user's location and delivering relevant results.
In 2017, Google implemented an update that leveraged location data to provide geo-based search outcomes, regardless of whether a user was accessing Google through google.com or a country-specific domain. This meant that users could see results for their physical location, even when using the generic google.com domain. According to Google, about one in five searches at that time were location-related, and this figure has likely increased in recent years.
With these advancements, Google believes that country-level domains are no longer essential. Consolidating under google.com is intended to streamline the search experience for users. Google has stated that the change will not affect how Search works or how it handles obligations under national laws. The primary impact will be on what users see in their browser address bar. Those who use country-specific URLs may need to re-enter their preferences when the change occurs.
For most users, the transition should be seamless. The search results will continue to be tailored to their location, ensuring they receive relevant and localized information. However, some users might notice a slight change in referral traffic from Google Search. Digital marketer Lily Ray has also pointed out that Google's AI Overviews sometimes struggle to show relevant location-based results, highlighting results from other countries. Google is expected to improve its AI results to better understand localized queries.
Some experts believe the change won't be a huge deal for search engine users because Google has been serving results based on geography since 2017. While most businesses won't see any real change, some might see region-level reporting on traffic. If a site was previously getting referral traffic from a TLD version of Google—for instance, a UK business seeing referrals via google.co.uk—those referrals will be replaced by just google.com.
The move to discontinue country-specific domains reflects Google's ongoing efforts to provide a consistent and efficient search experience for users around the world. By centralizing its search operations under the google.com domain, Google aims to simplify the user experience while continuing to deliver relevant and localized search results.
