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Today I was perusing Google for a site that compares the overdraft fees of different banks. I just assumed that Google would know that I only want results for US banks, since I’d rather not convert my money in to pounds (and flying 12 hours to see a banker in person seems inefficient).
The search that raised the red flag for me was a search for “compare bank overdraft rates“. Here’s what my results looked like:
compare bank overdraft rates
Why would Google assume that me, a guy in San Diego, would want to see results within the UK?
To be sure that Google knew I was in the US, I did search for “wells fargo” and I was given a result for a bank just down the street from me. Hence, Google knows where I am.
Has anyone else seen this behavior before?
ROFL. I feel for you. We have (UK peeps) been complaining about getting Australian results for awhile (dedicated website UKserps.co.uk)
Are you British? It’s very common to have overdraft fees in the UK. In the US, you have overdraft protection, but it’s not such a big feature of a bank account. What you searched for sounds like it came from a Brit, not an American, which is why I think you found matching UK content.
Thanks for your comment Danny. I’m American for the record. I just tried changing my search term from “compare bank overdraft rates” to “compare bank overdraft fees” and it seems to show me more US results (though still not great results).
Why would you say my original search term sounded British?
And for the record, overdraft fees are common in the US too if you make as much as I do.