google using ip address to serve local results within the US

local search on regular queries

Well, we all know that google.com results are based on the ip address of your connection. So for instance - if I do a google.com search in the UK and one in the US, I'll get different results (The Google.com results are like a halfway mix of what .co.uk would give you, but with a slightly more American flavor, or was that flavor.

Anyway, from our searchers on the western side of the atlantic, we found that Google was delving deeper into tracking your IP address, and that US users searching on google.com no longer all get the same results.

Image 1 - Customization (click image for full size version). This one is based on past searches, and does alter your results slightly.

Image 2 - details about how they customize it. Similar to what they've been doing in adwords recently, using past queries to display ppc ads.

Image 3 - Here's what we're referring to. Search for "baseball" and it caters results to a particular region, in this case NYC.

Image 4 - and if you click "details" - Google will tell you your IP address and where it thinks you are searching from. It asks you if you'd like to see the results without the algorithm shift that caters to local results. And yes, there was quite a change in the top ten.

They already do a more regional thing in PPC, which works quite well. But is this a good thing or a bad thing? Is it too catered for the retail sector, pushing the shopping aspect further than the research one?

And will Google roll this out even further, (or even to more of a location based detail) pushing the local search aspect more.

Keep yourself posted as the site grows, and share this article with friends on networks such as:
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