Google's problems with wi-fi hotspots in the UK
There are three main providers of wi-fi hotspots in the UK;
Here's the catch. T-Mobile is a German company. The servers that support the wi-fi clearly have an IP address that Google associates with Germany.
If you look at the iPhone / iPod Touch's unique Google Mobile screen there's no easy way to change country either. I use my iPod Touch a lot on wi-fi and frequently have to struggle to de-German my results.
There are some other twists too. National Express is a very large travel company over here in the UK; they run thousands of buses and coaches (think Greyhound) and many important train services too. In fact, National Express recently won the franchise for the important East Coast line (that hooks London into the east coast of the United Kindgom) and brought free wi-fi to all their passengers.
Free wi-fi on long train journeys is great news! Google results in... Swedish are less hot. Google currently associates National Express' wi-fi with Sweden.
It isn't just Google's search results which are effected. Google does a lot of content changes that are aligned with geo-detection. For example, I made a post to this Blogger account yesterday from a National Express train and had a lovely Swedish GUI to content with.
Google's struggles with correctly identifying the location of the searcher/ap user seem particularly noticable right now. This is a problem is only going to increase as more and more people access the web over mobile products. My ideal scenario would allow me to pop out of our office in Munich or Paris, saunder down to the local cafe, pull out my iPod Touch, connect to the wi-fi and get to English language content despite the fact I'm somewhere in mainland Europe.
- BT Openzone
- T-Mobile
- The Cloud
Here's the catch. T-Mobile is a German company. The servers that support the wi-fi clearly have an IP address that Google associates with Germany.
If you look at the iPhone / iPod Touch's unique Google Mobile screen there's no easy way to change country either. I use my iPod Touch a lot on wi-fi and frequently have to struggle to de-German my results.
There are some other twists too. National Express is a very large travel company over here in the UK; they run thousands of buses and coaches (think Greyhound) and many important train services too. In fact, National Express recently won the franchise for the important East Coast line (that hooks London into the east coast of the United Kindgom) and brought free wi-fi to all their passengers.
Free wi-fi on long train journeys is great news! Google results in... Swedish are less hot. Google currently associates National Express' wi-fi with Sweden.
It isn't just Google's search results which are effected. Google does a lot of content changes that are aligned with geo-detection. For example, I made a post to this Blogger account yesterday from a National Express train and had a lovely Swedish GUI to content with.
Google's struggles with correctly identifying the location of the searcher/ap user seem particularly noticable right now. This is a problem is only going to increase as more and more people access the web over mobile products. My ideal scenario would allow me to pop out of our office in Munich or Paris, saunder down to the local cafe, pull out my iPod Touch, connect to the wi-fi and get to English language content despite the fact I'm somewhere in mainland Europe.
Comments
This certainly fixed the browsing for me on my touch whilst on the train.....
I hope you guys get the bugs worked out. Hey I would settle for bugged system for the US transit systems.
Do you have to pay for the wi-fi service?
I'm glad I found your post because my first thought was that someone from Sweden had hacked into all my accounts!