It will no longer be possible for users of Alphabet Inc’s (NASDAQ:GOOGL) Google Search to change the country code in order to get search results from a particular country. Instead Google will serve search results based on the location that has been detected. This means that irrespective of whether the domain name that is being searched from is, for instance, google.com.au or google.com or google.co.uk, the set of results that will be returned will depend on the location of the user.
According to Evelyn kao, a product manager at Google, users who for instance live in Australia will automatically receive Australia’s country service. When they travel to another country such as New Zealand, the set of results they will be served will be derived from New Zealand’s country service.
Search experience improvement
Following the changes, there is now a strap located at the bottom of Google’s search page denoting the country the user is located in at that particular moment. The online search giant also added that its other products such as Maps will be impacted. According to Kao, the objective of the changes is to improve the search experience by offering users information that is most relevant and useful to them.
The changes to how search results are now served by Google comes in the wake of the online search engine’s latest financial results which revealed that revenues grew more than analysts had estimated. In the third quarter, revenues increased by 24% to reach a figure of $27.8 billion. Analysts had estimated revenues to come in at $27.2 billion in Q3. Profits also beat Wall Street’s estimates as it was $6.7 billion. On a per share basis the profit was $9.57.
Traffic acquisition costs
TAC, or traffic acquisition costs, increased by 54% in the quarter and they accounted for approximately 12% of ad sales. Cost controls and revenue growth however minimized the impact.
"TAC is surging, but the trade-off between growth and margin is a good one, with overall gross profit dollars still growing in excess of 20 per cent," Atlantic Equities' analyst, James Cordwell, said.
On Friday shares of Alphabet Inc rose by 4.26% to close the day at $1,033.67.
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