Omega Owners Forum

Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Shackeng on 26 June 2020, 16:46:46

Title: Google
Post by: Shackeng on 26 June 2020, 16:46:46
Is there another decent search engine than Google? No matter what I do it insists on offering US sites or items priced in $. I have tried the fixes suggested and using the - exclude option with no luck.
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Doctor Gollum on 26 June 2020, 17:02:35
You need to change your location to the UK :-X
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Entwood on 26 June 2020, 17:27:59
Are you using google.co.uk .... ?? or google.com ...??  you will get VERY different results from these "different" search engines ..
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Doctor Gollum on 26 June 2020, 17:36:08
Are you using google.co.uk .... ?? or google.com ...??  you will get VERY different results from these "different" search engines ..
Interweb will automatically choose according to where it thinks you're based :)
Title: Re: Google
Post by: STEMO on 26 June 2020, 17:59:48
Try Duck Duck Go Chris.
Title: Re: Google
Post by: TheBoy on 26 June 2020, 18:28:12
Is there another decent search engine than Google? No matter what I do it insists on offering US sites or items priced in $. I have tried the fixes suggested and using the - exclude option with no luck.
If you're using one, turn off the VPN
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Entwood on 26 June 2020, 22:00:45
Are you using google.co.uk .... ?? or google.com ...??  you will get VERY different results from these "different" search engines ..
Interweb will automatically choose according to where it thinks you're based :)

If using a VPN like I do, then having a shortcut to google.co.uk gets around the "auto" choice, which is pretty crap anyway ... same applies to ebay .. ebay.co.uk gives very different results to ebay.com, again .. a shortcut ensures you use the one you want, not the one "they" think you should .....
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Doctor Gollum on 26 June 2020, 22:43:03
Of course, typing in the complete address rather than simply the name helps...

Personally, I have a favourites bar with all my commonly used sites, and OOF and Google uk as my two default tabs.
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Shackeng on 27 June 2020, 07:34:19
I use google.UK, my location is UK, tried this: http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&meta=cr%3DcountryUK%7CcountryGB&q= , and tried exclude minus sign. It still often returns US sites.
I asked here about using a VPN  but was advised against it by TB, I think. :-\
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Shackeng on 27 June 2020, 07:39:05
https://www.omegaowners.com/forum/index.php?topic=146093.msg1927078#msg1927078 Advised on VPN here.
Title: Re: Google
Post by: TheBoy on 27 June 2020, 09:41:18
OK, so then assuming the region is correct (defaults to "current region") in your google settings, assuming you are signed in to google (and it likely will default to current region if you are not), then its probably just likely that the US answers are more relevant to your search query.

If its for shopping (probably the main reason for wanting UK results), then the Shopping tab will help keep it to your region - ish.  But I find Google Shopping a bit naff TBH.

Also changing the search slightly, eg, adding uk into it, can help, but most SEO plugins that most of these annoying sites us will put common western countries in the metadata anyway.


All search engines work on similar principles, and the global nature of the internet means that its not easy for a search engine to determine what country a site is aimed at (as its very likely its hosted in another country anyway - for eg, the OOF Shop is hosted in the US)
Title: Re: Google
Post by: Shackeng on 27 June 2020, 09:51:07
I invariably put UK in the search term as well. Doesn’t seem to make much difference.
Title: Re: Google
Post by: TheBoy on 27 June 2020, 10:03:02
I invariably put UK in the search term as well. Doesn’t seem to make much difference.
try +uk at the end
Title: Re: Google
Post by: TheBoy on 27 June 2020, 10:03:48
even so, you'll still have to wade through non uk dross :(