Comments on: Are you looking for Google?

By: MindanaoBob

MindanaoBob — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 22:43:57 +0000

Hi Steven – Thanks for the offer, I appreciate it. I don’t really have a need, though.

By: Steven

Steven — Sat, 10 Apr 2010 13:14:52 +0000

Bob, I have the fix to your problem, I can offer you a mirror site and a proxy server through my computer company. I have a US ip address in New Jersey and i can host or redirect to your Philippine server. I also can export electronics and computers equipment. If your intrested just e-mail me before i move to Davao lol. I will be there hopefully in the next 2 or 3 years.

By: MindanaoBob

MindanaoBob — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:32:17 +0000

Hi James – Happy to help you find Google!

By: James Moralde

James Moralde — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 02:21:27 +0000

Mine is already in english but still shows up in the url box as google.com.ph, so it must still be returning local serp and not US serp. However, in the same place where you showed the 'Google.com in English' is a 'Go to Google.com' link and when I did, the url returns US serp this time.

Before finding this technique out here, I used to make sure that I get US serps by adding '&gl=us' at the end of the search results url. But it's kinda tiresome in that I have to add that phrase each day I open google.

By: MindanaoBob

MindanaoBob — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 11:05:46 +0000

Hi Dave – I fully agree with you regarding using the US site, as it is the main Google site that most of the world will see. It simply gives a more accurate look at the web. The web is the World Wide Web, not the Philippine Wide Web, so I just feel it is wise to look at results that are balanced for the entire world, not skewed to any one nation.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:06:09 +0000

Thanks, Bob, indeed I was one of those "How do I make Google 'land' where I want it to" questioners. Like many things on the Internet, it's so simple once you know the trick.

This is particularly important to those of you (including Filipino readers) who are trying to make money wiht your on-line efforts. Unless you are sure that your only audience/potential customers are alwyas going to be in the Philippines, you want to use the main (US) Google search most of the time, for the simple reason that your competition does. And even if you are looking for other Filipinos globally (OFW's and Balikbayan, for example), they normally won't be doing their searches on Google's .ph server. They'll be landing on the server for their current country, or the main .com (US) site, from which all results flow anyway.

I applaud Google for their efforts to "localize" their search result by country, and to use as many languages as possible … but using the IP address of the user does not always make for a perfect match.