Google has announced a major change that will see users redirected to Google.com if they try to access Google through a country code top-level domain (ccTLD), such as Google.co.uk or Google.com.br. In the past, these different domain names have helped Google localize search results, but now that Google is able to determine a user's location, these ccTLDs are no longer necessary.
It should be noted that Google has not completely deprecated these URLs, but will only redirect these URLs to Google.com. The domains themselves are unlikely to be completely deprecated, so bookmarks using these addresses should still work normally.
Big tech giants always seem to be at odds with governments around the world for one reason or another. The search giant said that even redirecting to Google.com would not change its obligations under the laws of the countries in which it operates.
You will start to notice redirects to Google.com in the coming months as this change rolls out to more users. The company warns that you may be prompted to re-enter some of your search preferences during this process. But there is no mention of what preferences need to be provided.
The change is fairly subtle—users have been able to visit Google.com and get local results from searches since 2017—but the vast majority of users are unlikely to notice the change. With the shift to mobile, many searches these days also come from the Google app on Android, in which case you don't even see the URL bar.
While this change is quite significant, most readers won't need to consider it. Simply access the URL you normally use to access Google to jump to Google.com and still get local search results.