A year or two later I’m in Tokyo and talk to a new Google product manager based there. I tell her it is insane that Google serves me Japanese pages on my English-configured PowerBook just because I am in Japan. It doesn’t matter that I read Japanese just fine… Making this determination purely based on my IP address is madness, I tell her.
Over two decades later, nothing has changed. Each year I spend several months abroad, and this is one of the most infuriating experiences I encounter. Google is the offender that frustrates me the most, but they are far from the only company to engage in this abhorrent practice. I am tempted to create an Internationalization Wall of Shame just to embarrass the companies that do this. (Not that I expect them to care.)
Why do they do this? My theory has always been that in any given country, there are far more native speakers with misconfigured computing environments than there are visitors and nomadic folks like me. So it’s merely a numbers game: I may be frustrated, but at least Google and other companies aren’t losing business when folks with misconfigured computers close the tab because they got a page served to them in, say, English instead of their native language.
I can’t say for certain whether this is the actual reason for this behavior. What I can say, however, is that I absolutely loathe this practice and actively avoid doing business with any company that uses geo-IP location to serve me pages specific to that locale. If this frustrates you as well, be sure to vote with your feet!