Google regional domains no longer needed

[lucasmz-dev]

AFAICT, Google has killed the regions specific domains, leaving them to just redirect to google.com. There's some articles on it

I notice uBlacklist requests permission to be able to access every Google regional domain, which made sense in the past but it doesn't seem like that's the case anymore.

I feel like I'd be interesting to get rid of these permissions. Honestly I would've preferred being able to only grant it if I do manually, because I use DuckDuck, but I get why it is enabled by default.

[iorate]

Here’s an update on our use of country code top-level domains.

[iorate]

This change will be rolled out gradually over the coming months

It seems that not all domains are being redirected at this point.

import http.client

# https://www.google.com/supported_domains
for domain in ".google.com .google.ad .google.ae .google.com.af .google.com.ag .google.al .google.am .google.co.ao .google.com.ar .google.as .google.at .google.com.au .google.az .google.ba .google.com.bd .google.be .google.bf .google.bg .google.com.bh .google.bi .google.bj .google.com.bn .google.com.bo .google.com.br .google.bs .google.bt .google.co.bw .google.by .google.com.bz .google.ca .google.cd .google.cf .google.cg .google.ch .google.ci .google.co.ck .google.cl .google.cm .google.cn .google.com.co .google.co.cr .google.com.cu .google.cv .google.com.cy .google.cz .google.de .google.dj .google.dk .google.dm .google.com.do .google.dz .google.com.ec .google.ee .google.com.eg .google.es .google.com.et .google.fi .google.com.fj .google.fm .google.fr .google.ga .google.ge .google.gg .google.com.gh .google.com.gi .google.gl .google.gm .google.gr .google.com.gt .google.gy .google.com.hk .google.hn .google.hr .google.ht .google.hu .google.co.id .google.ie .google.co.il .google.im .google.co.in .google.iq .google.is .google.it .google.je .google.com.jm .google.jo .google.co.jp .google.co.ke .google.com.kh .google.ki .google.kg .google.co.kr .google.com.kw .google.kz .google.la .google.com.lb .google.li .google.lk .google.co.ls .google.lt .google.lu .google.lv .google.com.ly .google.co.ma .google.md .google.me .google.mg .google.mk .google.ml .google.com.mm .google.mn .google.com.mt .google.mu .google.mv .google.mw .google.com.mx .google.com.my .google.co.mz .google.com.na .google.com.ng .google.com.ni .google.ne .google.nl .google.no .google.com.np .google.nr .google.nu .google.co.nz .google.com.om .google.com.pa .google.com.pe .google.com.pg .google.com.ph .google.com.pk .google.pl .google.pn .google.com.pr .google.ps .google.pt .google.com.py .google.com.qa .google.ro .google.ru .google.rw .google.com.sa .google.com.sb .google.sc .google.se .google.com.sg .google.sh .google.si .google.sk .google.com.sl .google.sn .google.so .google.sm .google.sr .google.st .google.com.sv .google.td .google.tg .google.co.th .google.com.tj .google.tl .google.tm .google.tn .google.to .google.com.tr .google.tt .google.com.tw .google.co.tz .google.com.ua .google.co.ug .google.co.uk .google.com.uy .google.co.uz .google.com.vc .google.co.ve .google.co.vi .google.com.vn .google.vu .google.ws .google.rs .google.co.za .google.co.zm .google.co.zw .google.cat".split(" "):
    host = f"www{domain}"
    conn = http.client.HTTPSConnection(host)
    conn.request("GET", "/", headers={"Host": host})
    response = conn.getresponse()
    print(host, response.status)

www.google.com 200
www.google.ad 200
www.google.ae 200
www.google.com.af 200
www.google.com.ag 301
www.google.al 301
www.google.am 301
www.google.co.ao 200
www.google.com.ar 200
www.google.as 301
www.google.at 200
www.google.com.au 301
www.google.az 200
www.google.ba 301
www.google.com.bd 301
...

Should we wait until the redirection is complete before taking action?

[lucasmz-dev]

Seems like it's almost if not completely done now

lucas@fedora:~$ python Downloads/google-domains.py | grep 200
www.google.com 200
www.google.cn 200
www.google.com.hk 200

At the time of the original post I would have said wait, for simplicity, and in case they revert it, but right now it makes sense.

.cn and .hk make sense... I think that's it though

[iorate]

It's good to see that the migration is almost complete. Based on your findings, it looks like we should focus on supporting www.google.com and www.google.com.hk.

Regarding www.google.cn, I noticed it seems to only show a link to www.google.com.hk. I'm planning to remove www.google.cn from manifest.json unless there are objections. Adding it back later would require new user consent, but I think it's unlikely that www.google.cn will serve search results directly going forward.

Any thoughts? (Especially from users familiar with the Chinese market)

[iorate]

Actually, I found that search URLs with query parameters like https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=example are not being redirected yet, so the regional domains are still serving search results. This means it might be premature to remove permissions for regional domains.

[iorate]

URLs like https://www.google.co.jp/search?q=example still aren't redirected and return real search results. Some users may have these configured as custom search engines, and dropping support would silently break blocking for them.

The benefit of narrowing permissions would be a smaller install-time prompt (cf. #27), but I don't think that currently outweighs the risk of silent breakage.

Converting to a discussion so we can keep watching Google's rollout without leaving this open as a TODO.