Did you know that if you type the address for Google.com incorrectly you may end up at a Google page set up for a foreign country?

Pshh, I always do that. I really hate it when I begin to Google things that are not in any of the languages I know!

So far I’ve done.rs (Russia), .it (Italy), .pr (Portugal), .gr (Greece). LOL

I read something about this a long time ago. It had to do with unscrupulous people buying domain names with familiar company names, but in Cambodia (I think). So if you typed in something like “Levis.cam” by mistake, you’d actually be going to a sham site. Somehow, they made money off of this… maybe by phishing? Some kind of scam, anyway. Since then I’ve been pretty careful with my “com“s. ;)

Well, unfortunately, Google.xxx does not lead anywhere. And here I was thinking I would find the super secret sex search engine.

If you go to goggle.com you can take part in an exclusive survey (offered only to people who go to goggle.com, I guess, hence the exclusivity) and get a gift. (“Specially selected” no doubt.)

@WasCy is that legitimate..?

The news I gave is, or at least was, ten five minutes ago when I went to “goggle.com”. What the survey is about or what the gift might be, I have no idea. I laughed at it and closed the page. I figured I was unlikely to be more entertained any more than I already had been.

@WasCy it’s probably a phishing scam, then, which is a pretty safe bet on the internet

@augustlan These are actually legitimate Google sites, but just Google set for foreign countries in their language.

I use google.it all the time when I’m searching for Italian resources. Google.com or google.ca always gives me English results first, even if my search terms are in Italian. Google.it is a lot more effective for my needs.

And no, I didn’t find it accidentally… I think anyone who spends any time in another country or speaks/works in a second language probably knows about it.

In case you guys didn’t know, there are Canadian versions of a lot of sites that end in .ca rather than .com. Same thing.

I didn’t know that until you posted this question.

Guess what country is served by Google.ge

@Brian1946 Georgia.

It isn’t just Google that does this.

Yes, I knew that but I rarely visit them. I have google.co.uk set up as a link in my favourites so I never have to type it in. And did you know that Google Realtime indexes online sources such as blogs, Twitter and Facebook?