Over the next few months you will notice an important change in the addresses bar of your browser: typing Google.ityou will no longer access the Italian version of the most used search engine in the world. In its place, you will be automatically redirected to Google.com. This because Google officially announced the progressive elimination of national domains – the so -called cctld (Country Code Top-Level Domains), like google.fr, google.de, google.com.br and “ours” Google.it – in favor of a single global domain. This change is due to the fact that Google has improved the ability to offer results relevant to the geographical area of reference without resorting to the use of national domains. This change, already started quietly in 2017will take place gradually and will soon become the rule for everyone. Nothing will change for users.
Because Google’s national domains will no longer exist
To better understand Google’s decision, you have to start from the way the search engine has managed the localized results until some time ago. In the past, the presence of a national domain – such as Google.it for Italy – served to provide users with content relevant to their country. This system was based on the use of CCTld, or those first -level internet domains associated with the ISO codes of the various countries (such as .it forItaly, .fr for the Franceetc.). For several years, however, Google has begun to use technologies that determine the user’s position Directly from the device or by the IP address, making the use of these domains in fact superfluous to customize the results.
In the 2017the company had already anticipated this change of course, explaining that the results of the research would be based on the actual position of the user, and no longer on the domain type. For example, if you were physically in Italy and accessed Google.com, you still received relevant results for Italy. This approach has proven so effective as to lead to a definitive decision today: abandon the CCTld for one greater simplification and consistency in the research experience.
In the official note with which he announced the novelty, Google explained:
Over the years, our ability to provide local experience has improved. In 2017, we started to provide the same experience with local results for all those who use Search, regardless of whether they were using Google.com or CCTLD of their country.
Due to this improvement, domains at national level are no longer necessary. So we will begin to redirect the traffic from these CCTLD to Google.com to simplify the experience of people on research.
Behind Google’s choice, economic and management considerations could also be hidden. Maintaining dozens of local domains active and updated involves non -negligible infrastructure costs. From the point of view of corporate efficiency, therefore, it makes sense perfectly to reduce these charges, especially now that the benefits obtained by the use of the CCTLDs have become marginal.
What changes for those who use Google search engine
Despite the change visible in the URL, Google will continue to comply with the national regulations of individual countries. This means that The removal of the Google.it domain will not involve any variation As for the protection of personal dataThe right to oblivion or the Italian laws on online information. The company has reiterated on several occasions that the legal obligations will remain unchanged and will be managed according to the user’s position and not the domain used. Google has in fact specified:
While this update will change what people see in the browser addresses bar, it will not affect the way the research works, nor will the way we manage the obligations set out in national laws.
