Depends on how you count the date, this could create markets where people in different countries will sell Google search results to each other. New VPN providers pop up with the promise of 24h Google coverage. Software startups switch to a system where you bing work 16 hours straight, then get the next 32 hours break and repeat. "Breaking news" has a new Oxford definition, since newspapers change plan to publish news 5 minutes before Google opens for search. Electricity price increases for the first 2 hours of the odd-numbered day to combat the spike in demand. Comcast introduces a new fast lane at only $199 a month that has no slow down access to Google. University groups lobby for a new exemption in the law allowing unrestricted weekdays access. Political parties lobby for also blocking Google on the day of debates, regardless of whether it's an odd-numbered day. It's kinda fun to keep going."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","search"],"value":"To Break Google\u2019s Monopoly on Search, Make Its Index Public"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","search"],"value":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/to-break-google-s-monopoly-on-search-make-its-index-public"}},"_tags":["comment","author_thanhhaimai","story_20440079"],"author":"thanhhaimai","comment_text":"Banning anything is often not a good policy since it usually creates secondary markets.
Depends on how you count the date, this could create markets where people in different countries will sell Google search results to each other. New VPN providers pop up with the promise of 24h Google coverage. Software startups switch to a system where you bing work 16 hours straight, then get the next 32 hours break and repeat. "Breaking news" has a new Oxford definition, since newspapers change plan to publish news 5 minutes before Google opens for search. Electricity price increases for the first 2 hours of the odd-numbered day to combat the spike in demand. Comcast introduces a new fast lane at only $199 a month that has no slow down access to Google. University groups lobby for a new exemption in the law allowing unrestricted weekdays access. Political parties lobby for also blocking Google on the day of debates, regardless of whether it's an odd-numbered day. It's kinda fun to keep going.","created_at":"2019-07-16T01:50:05Z","created_at_i":1563241805,"objectID":"20446872","parent_id":20446730,"story_id":20440079,"story_title":"To Break Google\u2019s Monopoly on Search, Make Its Index Public","story_url":"https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-07-15/to-break-google-s-monopoly-on-search-make-its-index-public","updated_at":"2025-01-29T16:18:23Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"masswebsite"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"This tool simulate Google search results from different locations and devices that how you can see changes in website rankings and SERP Ads ranking according to user location and device.
It allows you to select device, language, country, city, and other custom search settings and show Google SERP results based on selected parameters.\nIt is helpful for performing Google search as if you were somewhere else without any proxies or VPN.\nThis tool can be useful for SEO and internet marketing companies in order to preview Adwords Ads and track their marketing campaigns using different locations and devices."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","search","results"],"value":"Localize Google Search Results Checker"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.isearch.global/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_masswebsite","story_33886068"],"author":"masswebsite","comment_text":"This tool simulate Google search results from different locations and devices that how you can see changes in website rankings and SERP Ads ranking according to user location and device.
It allows you to select device, language, country, city, and other custom search settings and show Google SERP results based on selected parameters.\nIt is helpful for performing Google search as if you were somewhere else without any proxies or VPN.\nThis tool can be useful for SEO and internet marketing companies in order to preview Adwords Ads and track their marketing campaigns using different locations and devices.","created_at":"2022-12-06T19:52:58Z","created_at_i":1670356378,"objectID":"33886069","parent_id":33886068,"story_id":33886068,"story_title":"Localize Google Search Results Checker","story_url":"https://www.isearch.global/","updated_at":"2024-09-20T12:43:54Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"aww_dang"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Even when I am logged into a Google account I am bombarded with content in the wrong language.
In Google maps, I am always shown the wrong currency when Google wants to book me a hotel room. The help page for this is useless and out of date. At least show me a major international currency.
Why would I book a hotel in Europe with a 3rd world currency I don't bank in? It ruins the whole sales experience and makes me focus on how terrible these platforms have become.
On YouTube, I have logged in and explicitly set the country and language. YouTube search results are mostly useless and often in the wrong language. Even for a simple query like "news". Worse yet, the language of results is often totally unrelated to my current region.
Advertisements are similarly incomprehensible. I'd be disappointed if I were buying these ads.
On Google search, although many results are in English, it is a particular flavor of English from authors in the region. I'd rather have the most relevant content, not the content Google presumes to align with my identity or the region I'm in.
It is enough to navigate foreign languages outside of the home. When using the computer it would be nice to have a comfort zone in English. Unfortunately Google thinks it knows better. It wasn't always this way.
Spotify is similar. Twitter has the same issues.
How can I have a basic English language experience without using a VPN?"},"title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Ask HN: How to Avoid Geotargetted Content?"}},"_tags":["story","author_aww_dang","story_34114924","ask_hn"],"author":"aww_dang","created_at":"2022-12-24T07:57:41Z","created_at_i":1671868661,"num_comments":0,"objectID":"34114924","points":1,"story_id":34114924,"story_text":"Even when I am logged into a Google account I am bombarded with content in the wrong language.
In Google maps, I am always shown the wrong currency when Google wants to book me a hotel room. The help page for this is useless and out of date. At least show me a major international currency.
Why would I book a hotel in Europe with a 3rd world currency I don't bank in? It ruins the whole sales experience and makes me focus on how terrible these platforms have become.
On YouTube, I have logged in and explicitly set the country and language. YouTube search results are mostly useless and often in the wrong language. Even for a simple query like "news". Worse yet, the language of results is often totally unrelated to my current region.
Advertisements are similarly incomprehensible. I'd be disappointed if I were buying these ads.
On Google search, although many results are in English, it is a particular flavor of English from authors in the region. I'd rather have the most relevant content, not the content Google presumes to align with my identity or the region I'm in.
It is enough to navigate foreign languages outside of the home. When using the computer it would be nice to have a comfort zone in English. Unfortunately Google thinks it knows better. It wasn't always this way.
Spotify is similar. Twitter has the same issues.
How can I have a basic English language experience without using a VPN?","title":"Ask HN: How to Avoid Geotargetted Content?","updated_at":"2024-09-20T12:48:11Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"lxgr"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Yes, please.
And while we're at it: Google, you know literally everything about my life. You know which languages I speak, which countries I live or have lived in.
So why is it impossible to find results relevant to country A, in country A's language, while browsing from country B, but with both languages A and B in my "Accept-Language", and me having lived in both A and B for years?
Why does the "languages I speak" setting on Google's search settings, which seems to be the only way to maybe make Google get the message, auto-reset at random all the time? How is using a VPN to get around this limitation a thing in 2025?"},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Don't guess my language"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://vitonsky.net/blog/2025/05/17/language-detection/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_lxgr","story_44028153"],"author":"lxgr","comment_text":"Yes, please.
And while we're at it: Google, you know literally everything about my life. You know which languages I speak, which countries I live or have lived in.
So why is it impossible to find results relevant to country A, in country A's language, while browsing from country B, but with both languages A and B in my "Accept-Language", and me having lived in both A and B for years?
Why does the "languages I speak" setting on Google's search settings, which seems to be the only way to maybe make Google get the message, auto-reset at random all the time? How is using a VPN to get around this limitation a thing in 2025?","created_at":"2025-05-19T16:18:49Z","created_at_i":1747671529,"objectID":"44031441","parent_id":44028153,"story_id":44028153,"story_title":"Don't guess my language","story_url":"https://vitonsky.net/blog/2025/05/17/language-detection/","updated_at":"2025-05-26T10:07:43Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Razengan"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"I recently noticed that even when using a VPN to another country and in Private Browsing in Safari and with Location turned off, Google Search still shows results based on my location!!?"},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"How to turn off Google's \"privacy sandbox\" ad tracking, and why you should"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/how-turn-googles-privacy-sandbox-ad-tracking-and-why-you-should"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Razengan","story_38728278"],"author":"Razengan","children":[38730570,38733639],"comment_text":"I recently noticed that even when using a VPN to another country and in Private Browsing in Safari and with Location turned off, Google Search still shows results based on my location!!?","created_at":"2023-12-22T02:21:52Z","created_at_i":1703211712,"objectID":"38730157","parent_id":38728278,"story_id":38728278,"story_title":"How to turn off Google's \"privacy sandbox\" ad tracking, and why you should","story_url":"https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2023/09/how-turn-googles-privacy-sandbox-ad-tracking-and-why-you-should","updated_at":"2024-09-20T15:58:26Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"c1sc0"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"I did the same about a month ago, just to see what it'd be like, an experiment of sorts, NY resolution style ... Deleted all my social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Google), Started using Firefox completely locked down with various plugins. If you're really paranoid you may want to look into getting a Raspberry Pi & setting it up as tor WiFi access point (Duckduckgo "Onion Pi"). After one month in here's my experience:
* No FB, Google+ & Twitter is easy, they were a waste of time anyway. Glad I did that.
* No Google: harder ... the search results from Google are still better than DDG.
* Always running your browser in "Private" mode: harder still ...I reverted to using one browser (Safari) for sites that require logins / cookies and Firefox for pure consumption.
* Onion Pi Tor WiFi: depends mostly on the network speed. On my home network I find the slowdown intolerable & often switch to the non-tor network. On a fast connection it is good enough that it doesn't bother me 80% of the time.
* VPN: I also have a HideMyAss VPN account which I use to bypass country firewalls. Here too the connection too often flakes out to use as an always-on solution.
* (Edit): I replaced Dropbox with Bittorrent Sync running on said Raspberry Pi. (I actually have two in different physical locations).
Verdict: While I'm glad I quit the social media nonsense & took some steps to protect my privacy, going into "Tinfoil Hat" mode all-day, every day just seems too hard."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"Ask HN: Deactivating Facebook and moving out of Google services enough?"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":""}},"_tags":["comment","author_c1sc0","story_7101990"],"author":"c1sc0","comment_text":"I did the same about a month ago, just to see what it'd be like, an experiment of sorts, NY resolution style ... Deleted all my social media accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Google), Started using Firefox completely locked down with various plugins. If you're really paranoid you may want to look into getting a Raspberry Pi & setting it up as tor WiFi access point (Duckduckgo "Onion Pi"). After one month in here's my experience:
* No FB, Google+ & Twitter is easy, they were a waste of time anyway. Glad I did that.
* No Google: harder ... the search results from Google are still better than DDG.
* Always running your browser in "Private" mode: harder still ...I reverted to using one browser (Safari) for sites that require logins / cookies and Firefox for pure consumption.
* Onion Pi Tor WiFi: depends mostly on the network speed. On my home network I find the slowdown intolerable & often switch to the non-tor network. On a fast connection it is good enough that it doesn't bother me 80% of the time.
* VPN: I also have a HideMyAss VPN account which I use to bypass country firewalls. Here too the connection too often flakes out to use as an always-on solution.
* (Edit): I replaced Dropbox with Bittorrent Sync running on said Raspberry Pi. (I actually have two in different physical locations).
Verdict: While I'm glad I quit the social media nonsense & took some steps to protect my privacy, going into "Tinfoil Hat" mode all-day, every day just seems too hard.","created_at":"2014-01-22T13:25:37Z","created_at_i":1390397137,"objectID":"7102397","parent_id":7101990,"story_id":7101990,"story_title":"Ask HN: Deactivating Facebook and moving out of Google services enough?","story_url":"","updated_at":"2024-09-19T20:19:37Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jasonrhaas"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Does anyone have a preference on what server the VPN connects to? For example, I'm using AirVPN, and you can select specific countries that you would like to allow the VPN to use. From there it just goes out and connects to the "recommended" server.
If I don't make any preference, it will connect me to a server in Canada. It's very fast, but a bit annoying because now I get all the Canadian search results in Google.
Is there any downside to using a VPN server in the same state or country that you are in?
BTW, I have been using AirVPN for a few days and really like it. Super minimal UI (which I like) and gets the job done. Also, I like that they accept BitCoin as payment if you so choose."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["vpn"],"value":"Do you need a VPN?"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["vpn"],"value":"https://blog.mozilla.org/internetcitizen/2017/08/29/do-you-need-a-vpn"}},"_tags":["comment","author_jasonrhaas","story_15585769"],"author":"jasonrhaas","comment_text":"Does anyone have a preference on what server the VPN connects to? For example, I'm using AirVPN, and you can select specific countries that you would like to allow the VPN to use. From there it just goes out and connects to the "recommended" server.
If I don't make any preference, it will connect me to a server in Canada. It's very fast, but a bit annoying because now I get all the Canadian search results in Google.
Is there any downside to using a VPN server in the same state or country that you are in?
BTW, I have been using AirVPN for a few days and really like it. Super minimal UI (which I like) and gets the job done. Also, I like that they accept BitCoin as payment if you so choose.","created_at":"2017-10-30T21:10:21Z","created_at_i":1509397821,"objectID":"15588928","parent_id":15585769,"story_id":15585769,"story_title":"Do you need a VPN?","story_url":"https://blog.mozilla.org/internetcitizen/2017/08/29/do-you-need-a-vpn","updated_at":"2024-09-20T01:35:18Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"class3shock"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Proton's response in the thread:
Hi everybody, this is Andy here. I'm one of the original researchers from CERN behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN. There's some false info out there about ProtonVPN, and these stories were first fabricated by Private Internet Access, a competitor who has been feeling pressure from ProtonVPN lately.
The stories are false, but we have always been very open with the community, so I would like to provide some background anyways. As many of you know, Proton has many partners (Radware, F5 Networks, Equinix, Radix, Farice, LeaseWeb, Dell, Supermicro, etc). Tesonet Lithuania is indeed a partner within our long list of partners, but it's a huge stretch to claim ProtonVPN is run by Tesonet.
We first met Tesonet back in 2015 when they offered to provide us with internet infrastructure (we received many offers after the infamous 2015 DDoS attacks - we never bought infrastructure from Tesonet). During this period, Google was suppressing ProtonMail in search results, and we were financially suffering. To address this challenge, we needed to hire staff outside of Switzerland where costs are lower. This is how our Skopje, Prague, and Vilnius offices got started.
Prague happened because two of ProtonMail's early hires from CERN were Czech. Skopje and Vilnius happened because we knew local partners there (it would not have been possible to source local candidates, handle HR and payroll, understand local regulations, etc, without outside assistance). We worked with Radix (Macedonia) and Tesonet (Lithuania) to accomplish this. Tesonet in particular was selected since they are one of Lithuania's largest tech companies (and we already knew them).
While our early hires in both Vilnius and Skopje were always working fully for Proton, they were formally employed by our local partners because we did not have a local entity that could employ them. In the early days of Proton, this was not an uncommon arrangement since our team is spread across over 10 countries.
In mid-2016, Google finally halted the suppression of ProtonMail in search results and we experienced strong growth. This gave us the resources to create our own corporate entities in Macedonia and Lithuania, and we engaged Radix and Tesonet to do this. We used the same legal address and nominee directors as our local partners because we still did not have our own office yet. For contractual reasons, these moves took some time. For example, ProtonLabs Skopje, our newest entity, only moved in November 2017.
For historical reasons, some connections to our past local partners remain. Some of the IPs we use in ProtonVPN's global network might be acquired or leased from Radix (we have never, and do not currently use IPs from Tesonet - most IPs are from LeaseWeb or are our own IPs). Similarly, the ProtonVPN Android keystore mistakenly lists Tesonet as the organization name, since our Android developer was at that time formally employed through Tesonet. Due to the way the Android Play store works, this keystore can unfortunately never be changed, but it remains under our sole control.
The entities we use today in Skopje and Vilnius are both subsidiaries of our corporate entities in Switzerland. While we no longer employ team members through third parties (except for in the United States where don't do direct employment), we do continue to share expertise and work on projects together with various partners. For example, our two new Swiss datacenters are being built together with Radix in order to share some of the fixed costs.
Going forward, we will need to continue working with partners around the world as we grow (unless you're Google, you can't do everything yourself). This is not the first time one of our partnerships has been inaccurately portrayed (the other incident is so ridiculous I'm not going to mention it here). The truth however, is less interesting than the conspiracy theories might have you believe.
--------
Further comments on the smear campaign against us:
The false allegations were originally spread by US-based VPN provider, Private Internet Access (PIA), who also happens to be a major competitor. We think it says a lot about them to be engaged in shady marketing tactics.\n\n ProtonVPN/ProtonMail does not, and has never used any IPs or servers from Tesonet (this can be publicly verified)\n\n Proton does not share any employees (or company directors) with Tesonet. This is also a verifiable fact.\n\n Proton has not used Tesonet for HR since 2016.\n\n There is little actual evidence that Tesonet does data-mining (in any case we have never used infrastructure from them).\n\n Proton has many suppliers (Dell, Juniper, Radware, etc). If you dig enough, you can find dirt on all of them and create a false narrative. We do business with other tech companies - this is not a secret or abnormal.\nHi everybody, this is Andy here. I'm one of the original researchers from CERN behind ProtonMail and ProtonVPN. There's some false info out there about ProtonVPN, and these stories were first fabricated by Private Internet Access, a competitor who has been feeling pressure from ProtonVPN lately.
The stories are false, but we have always been very open with the community, so I would like to provide some background anyways. As many of you know, Proton has many partners (Radware, F5 Networks, Equinix, Radix, Farice, LeaseWeb, Dell, Supermicro, etc). Tesonet Lithuania is indeed a partner within our long list of partners, but it's a huge stretch to claim ProtonVPN is run by Tesonet.
We first met Tesonet back in 2015 when they offered to provide us with internet infrastructure (we received many offers after the infamous 2015 DDoS attacks - we never bought infrastructure from Tesonet). During this period, Google was suppressing ProtonMail in search results, and we were financially suffering. To address this challenge, we needed to hire staff outside of Switzerland where costs are lower. This is how our Skopje, Prague, and Vilnius offices got started.
Prague happened because two of ProtonMail's early hires from CERN were Czech. Skopje and Vilnius happened because we knew local partners there (it would not have been possible to source local candidates, handle HR and payroll, understand local regulations, etc, without outside assistance). We worked with Radix (Macedonia) and Tesonet (Lithuania) to accomplish this. Tesonet in particular was selected since they are one of Lithuania's largest tech companies (and we already knew them).
While our early hires in both Vilnius and Skopje were always working fully for Proton, they were formally employed by our local partners because we did not have a local entity that could employ them. In the early days of Proton, this was not an uncommon arrangement since our team is spread across over 10 countries.
In mid-2016, Google finally halted the suppression of ProtonMail in search results and we experienced strong growth. This gave us the resources to create our own corporate entities in Macedonia and Lithuania, and we engaged Radix and Tesonet to do this. We used the same legal address and nominee directors as our local partners because we still did not have our own office yet. For contractual reasons, these moves took some time. For example, ProtonLabs Skopje, our newest entity, only moved in November 2017.
For historical reasons, some connections to our past local partners remain. Some of the IPs we use in ProtonVPN's global network might be acquired or leased from Radix (we have never, and do not currently use IPs from Tesonet - most IPs are from LeaseWeb or are our own IPs). Similarly, the ProtonVPN Android keystore mistakenly lists Tesonet as the organization name, since our Android developer was at that time formally employed through Tesonet. Due to the way the Android Play store works, this keystore can unfortunately never be changed, but it remains under our sole control.
The entities we use today in Skopje and Vilnius are both subsidiaries of our corporate entities in Switzerland. While we no longer employ team members through third parties (except for in the United States where don't do direct employment), we do continue to share expertise and work on projects together with various partners. For example, our two new Swiss datacenters are being built together with Radix in order to share some of the fixed costs.
Going forward, we will need to continue working with partners around the world as we grow (unless you're Google, you can't do everything yourself). This is not the first time one of our partnerships has been inaccurately portrayed (the other incident is so ridiculous I'm not going to mention it here). The truth however, is less interesting than the conspiracy theories might have you believe.
--------
Further comments on the smear campaign against us:
The false allegations were originally spread by US-based VPN provider, Private Internet Access (PIA), who also happens to be a major competitor. We think it says a lot about them to be engaged in shady marketing tactics.\n\n ProtonVPN/ProtonMail does not, and has never used any IPs or servers from Tesonet (this can be publicly verified)\n\n Proton does not share any employees (or company directors) with Tesonet. This is also a verifiable fact.\n\n Proton has not used Tesonet for HR since 2016.\n\n There is little actual evidence that Tesonet does data-mining (in any case we have never used infrastructure from them).\n\n Proton has many suppliers (Dell, Juniper, Radware, etc). If you dig enough, you can find dirt on all of them and create a false narrative. We do business with other tech companies - this is not a secret or abnormal.\nHate to say it mate, UK is already one of the worst offenders.
In their own "internet bubble," with curated Google searches that only present a very "Commonwealth countries bias" in search results. After I worked in the UK for a couple of years, I noticed there is a strong bias toward the same sites (Government and UK companies, especially biased toward "facts"). Second, you leave the UK. You will never get it. Try a VPN outside of the UK and search for the same stuff, you will notice it right away.
The UK have used the "think about the children" excuse for different stuff they don't like (Remember the Porn pass Idea? Where you had to go down to your local Tesco to get a "wanker pass" from the cashier.)
Same thing, now just for EU, and they use the "protect the children" excuse, but they have now started to aim at video game companies and others to "verify" age for the sake of "protecting the children". It is horrifying that they want to ID children in the excuse of their "safety". In a couple of years, they will likely offer free in-game currency to trick users into giving away their personal information."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/YxmPgFes8a"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Mudbugs","story_44705240"],"author":"Mudbugs","comment_text":">or for that matter, the UK.
Hate to say it mate, UK is already one of the worst offenders.
In their own "internet bubble," with curated Google searches that only present a very "Commonwealth countries bias" in search results. After I worked in the UK for a couple of years, I noticed there is a strong bias toward the same sites (Government and UK companies, especially biased toward "facts"). Second, you leave the UK. You will never get it. Try a VPN outside of the UK and search for the same stuff, you will notice it right away.
The UK have used the "think about the children" excuse for different stuff they don't like (Remember the Porn pass Idea? Where you had to go down to your local Tesco to get a "wanker pass" from the cashier.)
Same thing, now just for EU, and they use the "protect the children" excuse, but they have now started to aim at video game companies and others to "verify" age for the sake of "protecting the children". It is horrifying that they want to ID children in the excuse of their "safety". In a couple of years, they will likely offer free in-game currency to trick users into giving away their personal information.","created_at":"2025-07-28T08:11:29Z","created_at_i":1753690289,"objectID":"44708476","parent_id":44706081,"story_id":44705240,"story_title":"EU age verification app to ban any Android system not licensed by Google","story_url":"https://www.reddit.com/r/degoogle/s/YxmPgFes8a","updated_at":"2025-08-02T02:13:50Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"lucb1e"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"DDG skews very heavily towards your country setting indeed, and the default is indeed the USA, but Google is even worse. On DDG the locale selector is a switch displayed on every search results page. For Google, you have to use a VPN for the same effect.
I'm a Dutchman living in Germany speaking English at home and at work, so I switch between languages quite a lot: Dutch when I want to know local things (e.g. European laws, or recipes with ingredients that stores here actually carry), German when I need to know something like filing taxes or when trash is being picked up (I don't speak German yet, so I only do this when necessary), and English for everything else. Trying to do that on Google is nearly impossible. It somewhat picks up on the language of your query (certainly better than DDG picks up on that), but for English queries I'll still get a few German results, even after I click the "Change to English?" prompt (and I have to click every time, since I do not store cookies for Google). Like, thanks for this German forum thread when looking for an error message after I already set it to English... In DDG you can just flip a switch."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often"}},"_tags":["comment","author_lucb1e","story_19947129"],"author":"lucb1e","children":[19948045],"comment_text":"DDG skews very heavily towards your country setting indeed, and the default is indeed the USA, but Google is even worse. On DDG the locale selector is a switch displayed on every search results page. For Google, you have to use a VPN for the same effect.
I'm a Dutchman living in Germany speaking English at home and at work, so I switch between languages quite a lot: Dutch when I want to know local things (e.g. European laws, or recipes with ingredients that stores here actually carry), German when I need to know something like filing taxes or when trash is being picked up (I don't speak German yet, so I only do this when necessary), and English for everything else. Trying to do that on Google is nearly impossible. It somewhat picks up on the language of your query (certainly better than DDG picks up on that), but for English queries I'll still get a few German results, even after I click the "Change to English?" prompt (and I have to click every time, since I do not store cookies for Google). Like, thanks for this German forum thread when looking for an error message after I already set it to English... In DDG you can just flip a switch.","created_at":"2019-05-18T14:48:18Z","created_at_i":1558190898,"objectID":"19947677","parent_id":19947492,"story_id":19947129,"story_title":"Let's start using DuckDuckGo more often","updated_at":"2024-09-20T04:16:59Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"hangphyr"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Youtube has been doing that for a long time now, manually adjusting specific search results, basing it sometimes on geography. I don't know if they are still manually adjusting results in this example, but one example a couple months ago was if someone searched for "Louder with Crowder change my mind" in the US, Crowder's videos were buried several pages in. If you hop onto a VPN and try another country, the expected natural search result came up instead.
One could possibly blame it on poor engineering and bugs, but given Google's talent pool, that seems unlikely."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"YouTube can restrict PragerU because it is a private forum, appeals court rules"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/first-amendment-doesnt-apply-on-youtube-judges-reject-prageru-lawsuit/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_hangphyr","story_22433307"],"author":"hangphyr","children":[22437045],"comment_text":"Youtube has been doing that for a long time now, manually adjusting specific search results, basing it sometimes on geography. I don't know if they are still manually adjusting results in this example, but one example a couple months ago was if someone searched for "Louder with Crowder change my mind" in the US, Crowder's videos were buried several pages in. If you hop onto a VPN and try another country, the expected natural search result came up instead.
One could possibly blame it on poor engineering and bugs, but given Google's talent pool, that seems unlikely.","created_at":"2020-02-27T16:51:12Z","created_at_i":1582822272,"objectID":"22434977","parent_id":22434738,"story_id":22433307,"story_title":"YouTube can restrict PragerU because it is a private forum, appeals court rules","story_url":"https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/02/first-amendment-doesnt-apply-on-youtube-judges-reject-prageru-lawsuit/","updated_at":"2024-09-20T05:41:03Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"londons_explore"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Location data is very important for search.
Try turning on a VPN from another country, opening an incognito window and doing a google search for 'pizza'.
See how the results are nearly useless...? A bunch of delivery services that don't deliver in your country, who want payment in a currency you don't have, and all written in a language you don't speak.
Location at the local level matters less, but even so it makes some search results substantially more useful. That is a benefit that other search providers (who don't have strong control of the browser/platform) will not have. It makes the moat bigger."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"https://www.businessinsider.com/unredacted-google-lawsuit-docs-detail-efforts-to-collect-user-location-2021-5"}},"_tags":["comment","author_londons_explore","story_27324755"],"author":"londons_explore","children":[27328669,27329814,27332775],"comment_text":"Location data is very important for search.
Try turning on a VPN from another country, opening an incognito window and doing a google search for 'pizza'.
See how the results are nearly useless...? A bunch of delivery services that don't deliver in your country, who want payment in a currency you don't have, and all written in a language you don't speak.
Location at the local level matters less, but even so it makes some search results substantially more useful. That is a benefit that other search providers (who don't have strong control of the browser/platform) will not have. It makes the moat bigger.","created_at":"2021-05-29T21:40:15Z","created_at_i":1622324415,"objectID":"27328435","parent_id":27327108,"story_id":27324755,"story_title":"Google made it nearly impossible for users to keep their location private","story_url":"https://www.businessinsider.com/unredacted-google-lawsuit-docs-detail-efforts-to-collect-user-location-2021-5","updated_at":"2024-09-20T08:41:20Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"jyundt"},"story_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"I was in a Central American country for a week in January. After returning to the US, Google products like Search and YouTube are flagging my IP address as from this Central American country. This is happening for every device in my home, across multiple Google Accounts regardless of owner/account/OS:
- Android (phones and an Nvidia Shield)
- iOS
- MacOS
- Linux
Unfortunately this is preventing my wife and I from accessing YouTube content that is geo-locked and we are getting search results in Spanish (plus a bunch of other unexpected behavior with Google services).
I've contacted YouTube Premium support and Google One support, neither could figure this out and suggested I "ask the community".
My best guess: my US IP address was flagged as from this Central American county while I was abroad because I had to VPN back to this IP address while traveling. On mobile, if I disconnect from my wireless network and use 5G/LTE, everything "just works"; I can access US YouTube content and search results are in English + the correct geo.
Based on the suggestion from Google support, I posted this information to the Community help site[0] hoping that someone will be able to help. Additionally I\u2019ve used this Google form[1] to \u201cReport IP Problems\u201d, but this can supposedly take more than a month. Given how one way this form feels, my confidence with it is relatively low.
Has anyone ever encountered this before? Any suggestions? How can I get Google to mark my IP address as "from the US"? Unfortunately I feel like I\u2019m in some weird Kafkaesque nightmare.
A few things to note: MaxMind / GeoIP lookups have always correctly identified my IP address as "from the US", this seems to be limited to just Google services. I have a static IP from my ISP and I would prefer to avoid getting a new IP from my ISP. I also don\u2019t want to have some other unlucky customer get this cursed faux Central American IP address. However, if neither Google nor HN can figure this out, I\u2019ll contact my ISP and request a new IP.
[0] https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/148526373
[1] https://support.google.com/websearch/workflow/9308722
edit: formatting"},"title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"Ask HN: How can I get Google to fix their reported geolocation of my IP address?"}},"_tags":["story","author_jyundt","story_30173400","ask_hn"],"author":"jyundt","children":[30174015],"created_at":"2022-02-02T03:42:06Z","created_at_i":1643773326,"num_comments":2,"objectID":"30173400","points":12,"story_id":30173400,"story_text":"I was in a Central American country for a week in January. After returning to the US, Google products like Search and YouTube are flagging my IP address as from this Central American country. This is happening for every device in my home, across multiple Google Accounts regardless of owner/account/OS:
- Android (phones and an Nvidia Shield)
- iOS
- MacOS
- Linux
Unfortunately this is preventing my wife and I from accessing YouTube content that is geo-locked and we are getting search results in Spanish (plus a bunch of other unexpected behavior with Google services).
I've contacted YouTube Premium support and Google One support, neither could figure this out and suggested I "ask the community".
My best guess: my US IP address was flagged as from this Central American county while I was abroad because I had to VPN back to this IP address while traveling. On mobile, if I disconnect from my wireless network and use 5G/LTE, everything "just works"; I can access US YouTube content and search results are in English + the correct geo.
Based on the suggestion from Google support, I posted this information to the Community help site[0] hoping that someone will be able to help. Additionally I\u2019ve used this Google form[1] to \u201cReport IP Problems\u201d, but this can supposedly take more than a month. Given how one way this form feels, my confidence with it is relatively low.
Has anyone ever encountered this before? Any suggestions? How can I get Google to mark my IP address as "from the US"? Unfortunately I feel like I\u2019m in some weird Kafkaesque nightmare.
A few things to note: MaxMind / GeoIP lookups have always correctly identified my IP address as "from the US", this seems to be limited to just Google services. I have a static IP from my ISP and I would prefer to avoid getting a new IP from my ISP. I also don\u2019t want to have some other unlucky customer get this cursed faux Central American IP address. However, if neither Google nor HN can figure this out, I\u2019ll contact my ISP and request a new IP.
[0] https://support.google.com/accounts/thread/148526373
[1] https://support.google.com/websearch/workflow/9308722
edit: formatting","title":"Ask HN: How can I get Google to fix their reported geolocation of my IP address?","updated_at":"2025-12-31T02:50:19Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"sensanaty"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"> At the very least I know you have censored search results as that is an EU wide requirement of the right to be forgotten.
How is the right to be forgotten a bad thing exactly? You can't request a news article be deleted if you're a prominent public figure for obvious reasons, but if you're a random Joe Schmoe then being able to force companies to take down things they've collected about you is a good thing.
And are you implying search engines in the US don't have things "censored" all the time anyway? If you look up basically any form of media on Google, at the bottom will be a large list of links removed due to DMCA takedowns. Hell, Youtube literally steals all ad revenue from creators hit with DMCA takedowns, even falsified ones, where's your complaint about Google censoring its own creators?
> Multiple EU countries are blocking pirate sites
And that's idiotic, but definitionally not the case in "The EU" as can be seen by my country which is part of The EU, the Netherlands, not blocking access to any pirate sites. I would know, I pirate media quite literally every single day of my life, both private and public trackers without even having a VPN or anything of the sort. I'm sure it's not the only EU country to not block anything, even though corrupt idiots in Spain and Italy also exist.
> There are definitely American sites that block EU visitors because of the cost/risk of GDPR compliance.
I mean, good? If business are so incompetent/malicious that they can't even comply with the GDPR, which just states that users have to be informed and have to give explicit consent to companies harvesting their data, then they can fuck off. If your company goes bankrupt because the GDPR makes it impossible to earn money, good riddance to that parasitic business model I say, maybe get a real revenue stream that doesn't rely on fucking over every single one of your users instead? The people who are against GDPR are really telling on themselves and how little they respect their own users.
But anyways wtf does the GDPR have to do with "censorship" or hate speech? If anything this sounds like you're arguing that the US companies are the ones doing the censorship, considering they're the ones blocking it for EU users (apparently, I've literally never come across a blocked page due to GDPR, and it's not like California doesn't have similarly stringent regulations either like the CCPA).
Next you're going to tell me HIPAA is censorship as well."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://www.reuters.com/world/us-plans-online-portal-bypass-content-bans-europe-elsewhere-2026-02-18/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_sensanaty","story_47067270"],"author":"sensanaty","children":[47088809],"comment_text":"> At the very least I know you have censored search results as that is an EU wide requirement of the right to be forgotten.
How is the right to be forgotten a bad thing exactly? You can't request a news article be deleted if you're a prominent public figure for obvious reasons, but if you're a random Joe Schmoe then being able to force companies to take down things they've collected about you is a good thing.
And are you implying search engines in the US don't have things "censored" all the time anyway? If you look up basically any form of media on Google, at the bottom will be a large list of links removed due to DMCA takedowns. Hell, Youtube literally steals all ad revenue from creators hit with DMCA takedowns, even falsified ones, where's your complaint about Google censoring its own creators?
> Multiple EU countries are blocking pirate sites
And that's idiotic, but definitionally not the case in "The EU" as can be seen by my country which is part of The EU, the Netherlands, not blocking access to any pirate sites. I would know, I pirate media quite literally every single day of my life, both private and public trackers without even having a VPN or anything of the sort. I'm sure it's not the only EU country to not block anything, even though corrupt idiots in Spain and Italy also exist.
> There are definitely American sites that block EU visitors because of the cost/risk of GDPR compliance.
I mean, good? If business are so incompetent/malicious that they can't even comply with the GDPR, which just states that users have to be informed and have to give explicit consent to companies harvesting their data, then they can fuck off. If your company goes bankrupt because the GDPR makes it impossible to earn money, good riddance to that parasitic business model I say, maybe get a real revenue stream that doesn't rely on fucking over every single one of your users instead? The people who are against GDPR are really telling on themselves and how little they respect their own users.
But anyways wtf does the GDPR have to do with "censorship" or hate speech? If anything this sounds like you're arguing that the US companies are the ones doing the censorship, considering they're the ones blocking it for EU users (apparently, I've literally never come across a blocked page due to GDPR, and it's not like California doesn't have similarly stringent regulations either like the CCPA).
Next you're going to tell me HIPAA is censorship as well.","created_at":"2026-02-20T14:45:45Z","created_at_i":1771598745,"objectID":"47088660","parent_id":47087470,"story_id":47067270,"story_title":"US plans online portal to bypass content bans in Europe and elsewhere","story_url":"https://www.reuters.com/world/us-plans-online-portal-bypass-content-bans-europe-elsewhere-2026-02-18/","updated_at":"2026-03-05T23:36:25Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"Tor3"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Hm.. I don't seem to have that particular problem. I use VPN sometimes, but for other reasons, so I don't normally do my searches there. With the native IP I get both English and Japanese results, depending on what it finds, but for multi-language sites in Japan I actually get English sometimes. If I only want results from Japan I prefix my Google search with site:.jp, or whatever for other places. I never get auto-translated documents. I get what I would expect, actually. With a bias from the country (in this case Japan) I am in, but that's about it."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"YouTube No Translation"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-no-translation/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_Tor3","story_44416009"],"author":"Tor3","comment_text":"Hm.. I don't seem to have that particular problem. I use VPN sometimes, but for other reasons, so I don't normally do my searches there. With the native IP I get both English and Japanese results, depending on what it finds, but for multi-language sites in Japan I actually get English sometimes. If I only want results from Japan I prefix my Google search with site:.jp, or whatever for other places. I never get auto-translated documents. I get what I would expect, actually. With a bias from the country (in this case Japan) I am in, but that's about it.","created_at":"2025-07-01T11:48:57Z","created_at_i":1751370537,"objectID":"44432948","parent_id":44432285,"story_id":44416009,"story_title":"YouTube No Translation","story_url":"https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/addon/youtube-no-translation/","updated_at":"2025-07-01T11:51:03Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"seanmcdirmid"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"This is a common expat pita. So you move to a new country, the digital world decides that you now must immerse yourself in that country. And its quite true: the expat demographic is minuscule so why bother accommodating it? Its only because the technical barriers for it not being that way are so low, that we expect the digital world to be different from the physical world, but really, each country has its own commerce laws and you have to essentially \"break the rules\" to say...operate your iTunes account from a non-local address so you can still buy things in English.
Google isn't so bad as long as you login; in fact the first hint I'm not logged in usually comes from a bunch of Chinese search results. Really, this isn't as big a deal as region coding, Netflix, Hulu, and VPNs that are constantly being attacked by your host government."},"story_title":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"I'm Not Japanese"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"http://sachagreif.com/im-not-japanese/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_seanmcdirmid","story_4416213"],"author":"seanmcdirmid","comment_text":"This is a common expat pita. So you move to a new country, the digital world decides that you now must immerse yourself in that country. And its quite true: the expat demographic is minuscule so why bother accommodating it? Its only because the technical barriers for it not being that way are so low, that we expect the digital world to be different from the physical world, but really, each country has its own commerce laws and you have to essentially \"break the rules\" to say...operate your iTunes account from a non-local address so you can still buy things in English.
Google isn't so bad as long as you login; in fact the first hint I'm not logged in usually comes from a bunch of Chinese search results. Really, this isn't as big a deal as region coding, Netflix, Hulu, and VPNs that are constantly being attacked by your host government.","created_at":"2012-08-22T07:33:12Z","created_at_i":1345620792,"objectID":"4416413","parent_id":4416213,"story_id":4416213,"story_title":"I'm Not Japanese","story_url":"http://sachagreif.com/im-not-japanese/","updated_at":"2024-09-19T18:45:39Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"bgro"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"I've been somewhat thoroughly testing Google text/image search by coincidence. I'll share my experience about some oddities here.
I do somewhat unusual things, like search for parts of a joke or a string of semi-randomly generated words for part of an AI type thing I'm working on creating to see if these are either unique or original and how they may appear in the context of the internet. Often times, if anything, there's something like a banned twitter (bot?) account only available through a cached backup that said it once in some bizarre context.
I've noticed it significantly can change search results depending on if you're logged in, or the country you're searching from (via a VPN). Different countries have different levels of success for different types of searches, but I don't have any sort of solid guide to map this out in any shareable way.
Boot up a virtual machine on a VPN if you're curious to take a look yourself. You may need to manipulate it so you don't bring in any suspicious cookies or other identifying information to show your actual country. Some VPN IPs are well known, and your results may be manipulated anyway.
Some results literally will never show up if you're searching from the USA. If you switch to Hungary for example, suddenly things could start appearing. Even if the matching result is a Chinese site that should have relatively equal relevance to both countries.
Sometimes I use Bing. It's not exactly better, but it's also not really worse. It's just different. In my non-scientific opinion after seeing so many of these differences, it's because it feels like they just forgot to enable (or haven't yet gotten to enabling) the kind of filtering Google has.
If something is no longer showing up in Google search, using Bing feels like going back 1 relative year in time before Google nerfed your active search. Sometimes I suspect Google is breaking down searches to parsable keywords and then sometimes adding those to a blacklist.
DuckDuckGo seems to sometimes filter things too, and some of the other commonly recommended alternative search engines. I don't know if they're actively doing this, or if it's a byproduct of forking off some other engine. I don't have much information here because I've largely given up bothering with these.
There's some other large engines not widely discussed in the US I am currently looking at as well. I don't have enough experience to form a solid opinion yet, and I have suspicion of their privacy so I don't want to be loosely associated with recommending it until I know more.
Miscellaneous other thoughts around this topic:
- Google has been heavily pushing some results more than others obviously. Pinterest and Quora are always at the top of searches now. I think this is pretty common knowledge.
- Chrome has a right click -> Search with Google Lens button now. Are they working on AI object detection of images more so than a visual match now? Could this factor into image matches?
- TinEye - When looking into this question myself, a lot of people recommend TinEye. I've literally never had TinEye actually match a picture by the way. Am I using it wrong?"},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","search"],"value":"Google Broke Image Search for Creative Commons"},"story_url":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","search"],"value":"https://cogdogblog.com/2022/09/google-broke-cc-image-search/"}},"_tags":["comment","author_bgro","story_33007025"],"author":"bgro","children":[33013492],"comment_text":"I've been somewhat thoroughly testing Google text/image search by coincidence. I'll share my experience about some oddities here.
I do somewhat unusual things, like search for parts of a joke or a string of semi-randomly generated words for part of an AI type thing I'm working on creating to see if these are either unique or original and how they may appear in the context of the internet. Often times, if anything, there's something like a banned twitter (bot?) account only available through a cached backup that said it once in some bizarre context.
I've noticed it significantly can change search results depending on if you're logged in, or the country you're searching from (via a VPN). Different countries have different levels of success for different types of searches, but I don't have any sort of solid guide to map this out in any shareable way.
Boot up a virtual machine on a VPN if you're curious to take a look yourself. You may need to manipulate it so you don't bring in any suspicious cookies or other identifying information to show your actual country. Some VPN IPs are well known, and your results may be manipulated anyway.
Some results literally will never show up if you're searching from the USA. If you switch to Hungary for example, suddenly things could start appearing. Even if the matching result is a Chinese site that should have relatively equal relevance to both countries.
Sometimes I use Bing. It's not exactly better, but it's also not really worse. It's just different. In my non-scientific opinion after seeing so many of these differences, it's because it feels like they just forgot to enable (or haven't yet gotten to enabling) the kind of filtering Google has.
If something is no longer showing up in Google search, using Bing feels like going back 1 relative year in time before Google nerfed your active search. Sometimes I suspect Google is breaking down searches to parsable keywords and then sometimes adding those to a blacklist.
DuckDuckGo seems to sometimes filter things too, and some of the other commonly recommended alternative search engines. I don't know if they're actively doing this, or if it's a byproduct of forking off some other engine. I don't have much information here because I've largely given up bothering with these.
There's some other large engines not widely discussed in the US I am currently looking at as well. I don't have enough experience to form a solid opinion yet, and I have suspicion of their privacy so I don't want to be loosely associated with recommending it until I know more.
Miscellaneous other thoughts around this topic:
- Google has been heavily pushing some results more than others obviously. Pinterest and Quora are always at the top of searches now. I think this is pretty common knowledge.
- Chrome has a right click -> Search with Google Lens button now. Are they working on AI object detection of images more so than a visual match now? Could this factor into image matches?
- TinEye - When looking into this question myself, a lot of people recommend TinEye. I've literally never had TinEye actually match a picture by the way. Am I using it wrong?","created_at":"2022-09-28T15:16:05Z","created_at_i":1664378165,"objectID":"33008979","parent_id":33007025,"story_id":33007025,"story_title":"Google Broke Image Search for Creative Commons","story_url":"https://cogdogblog.com/2022/09/google-broke-cc-image-search/","updated_at":"2024-09-20T12:08:30Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"black_puppydog"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Having moved country twice I used to get very upset by this.\nNow though, I have just given up on google. They seem to have no interest (and no incentive, for lack of un-buy-out-able competition) to improve this. I mean, apart from the occasional vacation, how much of their userbase are really changing location regularly, right? And do those people have any real choice to opt out of using the shitty product anyhow?
They still regularly show me map search results relevant to my place from 8 years ago.\nThey still randomly switch me to this or that language based on VPN usage or such. Feels like a big middle finger that they haven't even attempted to solve this over the last 10 years or so since I first started noticing this.
At least for search, I have recently switched to Kagi (based on a recommendation from here on HN) and haven't looked back. It's been... *checks mails* Oh, since new year's. Longer than any of my DuckDuckGo streaks.
I honestly didn't expect this to stick, but once Kagi goes out of beta I think I'd subscribe if the price point is right. It's so refreshing to get good search results with no BS. And if something bad creeps in (which happened once so far, a StackOverflow SEO site) I can just block that page from ever showing up in my results again.
So yeah, I use gmail & calendar for work on a separate account, and youtube privately. Apart from that, I avoid their products. Most of my apps on android are from f-droid, I open the play store a couple of times a year. It's just not worth the hassle, and that doesn't even get into the whole privacy & market dominance behaviour."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google"],"value":"Why does Google use location for language rather than browser settings?"},"story_url":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"https://smaller.fish/posts/language"}},"_tags":["comment","author_black_puppydog","story_30638590"],"author":"black_puppydog","children":[30639973],"comment_text":"Having moved country twice I used to get very upset by this.\nNow though, I have just given up on google. They seem to have no interest (and no incentive, for lack of un-buy-out-able competition) to improve this. I mean, apart from the occasional vacation, how much of their userbase are really changing location regularly, right? And do those people have any real choice to opt out of using the shitty product anyhow?
They still regularly show me map search results relevant to my place from 8 years ago.\nThey still randomly switch me to this or that language based on VPN usage or such. Feels like a big middle finger that they haven't even attempted to solve this over the last 10 years or so since I first started noticing this.
At least for search, I have recently switched to Kagi (based on a recommendation from here on HN) and haven't looked back. It's been... *checks mails* Oh, since new year's. Longer than any of my DuckDuckGo streaks.
I honestly didn't expect this to stick, but once Kagi goes out of beta I think I'd subscribe if the price point is right. It's so refreshing to get good search results with no BS. And if something bad creeps in (which happened once so far, a StackOverflow SEO site) I can just block that page from ever showing up in my results again.
So yeah, I use gmail & calendar for work on a separate account, and youtube privately. Apart from that, I avoid their products. Most of my apps on android are from f-droid, I open the play store a couple of times a year. It's just not worth the hassle, and that doesn't even get into the whole privacy & market dominance behaviour.","created_at":"2022-03-11T13:31:31Z","created_at_i":1647005491,"objectID":"30639621","parent_id":30638590,"story_id":30638590,"story_title":"Why does Google use location for language rather than browser settings?","story_url":"https://smaller.fish/posts/language","updated_at":"2024-09-20T10:41:33Z"},{"_highlightResult":{"author":{"matchLevel":"none","matchedWords":[],"value":"usr1106"},"comment_text":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"full","matchedWords":["vpn","google","search","results","country"],"value":"Thanks for replying on HN! When I do want local search results from a different location abroad than where I am located at I have found no other way than using a VPN ending in that country. Is there a simpler solution?
Google is notoriusly bad add respecting my browser language. I more often than not get the login page in languages different than my browser language. (I only log in when I really want to use some personal service, which is not that often)."},"story_title":{"fullyHighlighted":false,"matchLevel":"partial","matchedWords":["google","results"],"value":"Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirect to malware/spam"}},"_tags":["comment","author_usr1106","story_30117388"],"author":"usr1106","comment_text":"Thanks for replying on HN! When I do want local search results from a different location abroad than where I am located at I have found no other way than using a VPN ending in that country. Is there a simpler solution?
Google is notoriusly bad add respecting my browser language. I more often than not get the login page in languages different than my browser language. (I only log in when I really want to use some personal service, which is not that often).","created_at":"2022-01-28T23:39:54Z","created_at_i":1643413194,"objectID":"30122043","parent_id":30120919,"story_id":30117388,"story_title":"Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirect to malware/spam","updated_at":"2024-09-20T10:22:12Z"}],"hitsPerPage":20,"nbHits":40,"nbPages":2,"page":0,"params":"query=VPN+google+search+results+country&advancedSyntax=true&analyticsTags=backend","processingTimeMS":40,"processingTimingsMS":{"_request":{"roundTrip":19},"afterFetch":{"format":{"highlighting":2,"total":2},"merge":{"mergeLoop":{"prepareNextHit":8,"total":8},"total":9},"total":9},"fetch":{"query":14,"scanning":14,"total":29},"total":40},"query":"VPN google search results country","serverTimeMS":42}