Google thinks I'm in Washington DC, nowhere else does

Google thinks I'm in Washington DC but afaik everywhere else doesn't. When I run a "what is my ip" all of them get it correct. I'm fairly certain most if not all web sites that have US and UK sites also correctly geo locate me. A little hesitant on this because I've been getting a lot of confirm you are not a bot requests on some sites. But that could be from clicking on U.S. google search results and then the site detecting I'm in UK etc.

But all google results are American and shopping results are in $. Extremely frustrating.

Multiple devices, ruled out VPN / plugin interference, I've also renewed my IP 3 times! This is BT FTTP. I saw a new ipv4 each time I tried but not sure about ipv6. BT support useless and don't understand the issue and promised to escalate and call me back, never did!

Any ideas?
Thanks

So when you go to google.com and google.co.uk what does it say in bottom left had corner, my says 'United Kingdom'

What's your results if you go to https://www.iplocation.net/

In reply to a post by oldskool:

Any ideas?

WiFi or Ethernet?
Anything useful on https://iplocation.io/ ?

Tried a different web browser? Tried a Private/Incognito/Inprivate window?

I think this is governed by your google account location settings. This is one thing I have specifically set to the UK to force it to show UK results (which doesn't work).

To answer, it says United Kington on both .com and .co.uk

But in incognito, nothing is shown for the location.

Searching:

Search Results Example

It matches me exactly to my town

I've tired both wifi and ethernet

On iplocation.io it is comprehensive but every single match gets me correctly located, some of them right down to my town.

I have also tried a different browser, like Firefox which has never been installed before, tried in incognito mode, to rule out any cache or location history. I've also cleared the cache on my other browser.

I've even run a traceroute (OS X) just to check routing.

Its happening on other peoples devices in the house which is totally independent of any plugin or vpn I've installed.

Have you tried a different router as I think Google uses it's mapping cars to gather wifi locations.

In reply to a post by oldskool:

I've tired both wifi and ethernet

Great, if it was WiFi only then you could blame Google's wifi mapping technology getting something wrong.

On iplocation.io it is comprehensive but every single match gets me correctly located, some of them right down to my town.
Its happening on other peoples devices in the house which is totally independent of any plugin or vpn I've installed.

This means the various geolocation databases are correct for the IP addresses that BT has assigned to your connection, and means the problem is with Google. Perhaps try using Bing or DuckDuckGo to work around the problem.

IPv4 addresses have run out, so internet providers around the planet buy and sell from each other blocks of addresses. It is possible the address you have from BT was previously located in the USA.

Try sending Feedback to Google:
https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/6223687

Edited by jchamier (Sun 17-Dec-23 12:39:08)

I sort had this problem but only when I go on my travles to the USA. I have own travel router that VPN in to my network in UK. So Laptops,Phones, Tablets, Firesticks connect to travel router. So when come back from USA and back in UK Google thinks my IP is located in USA. The advertising in USA lot more then we do get in UK (lot medicaid, medicare, federal rebate for solar add's on Youtube)

I took about 3 weeks being back in UK until started getting any UK adds again.

And yes it is annoying. Just prefix all searches with UK