google.com -> google.com.ph

[afuna_archive]

Oh interesting. If I add "&client=firefox" to the parameters in a Google search, it redirects me from http://www.google.com to http://www.google.com.ph. The navigation links at the top left hand side are different, as are the order of the search results.

Any value that starts with "firefox" will do. For example, these URLs pass me back to google.com.ph:
http://www.google.com/search?q=aveleh&client=firefox
http://www.google.com/search?q=aveleh&client=firefox-a
http://www.google.com/search?q=aveleh&client=firefoxgibberish

However, taking out the &client, or giving it a value that does not start with "firefox" does not perform the redirect. For instance:
http://www.google.com/search?q=aveleh&client=gibberish
http://www.google.com/search?q=aveleh&client=opera

Finally, the redirect doesn't work if I specify the country:
http://www.google.ca/search?q=aveleh&client=firefox


I wonder how it affects people in other countries? I'm guessing it will probably redirect to your country-specific Google domain.

(This all started because a search for "arno tom ponnixry" returned only results for my journal. And then we found out that searching for "aveleh" returned my journal as the fourth result in aveleh's Google search, but as the first result of mine. From there, it was a short step to me comparing both URLs for differences, and accidentally stumbling upon the auto-redirect.)

Comments

[aveleh]

I love that we're so used to finding anything in google, that the idea of “arno tom ponnixry” returning *only* your journal is strange, even though it's a freaking non-existent phrase :)

[afuna]

I can*not* be the only person who types as badly as I do. I refuse to believe it :)

[aveleh]

Ah, but maybe you're the only person who types as badly as you do using dvorak :p

[afuna]

....

I concede the point. (SADLY)

[gameboyguy13.livejournal.com]

Well, I can tell you that it doesn't redirect me, but that's probably because www.google.us redirects to google.com itself, and www.google.com.us 404s.

I guess we don't get a special localized Google.

[iruka11.livejournal.com]

oooh...

[ivles.livejournal.com]

It really depends. For example, I do my queries while logging into Google account system, my preferences while logging in is to use google.com (and not google.co.id), so even if it has &client=firefox-a or the similar, it won't redirect me to google.co.id, but with no saved preferences, you will go to the localized page for each country. ;-)

[afuna]

Aha, that is interesting. I didn't know you could control that. Any idea why it does redirect only for Firefox? *curious*

[ivles.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that you will be redirected using Opera and IE too, but only if you are using Windows in Tagalog :D

With Firefox, Google can easily track your IP and such, so it's easier for them to determine your whereabouts.

[afuna]

Hm. It doesn't seem to be related to the browser. I meant that it does the redirect on the "firefox" string for the browser URL parameter (or at least does so on Safari and IE).