websites of the world

i surf very few sites, but have found the net peculiar.

even though the web is world spanning, many sites i visit default to the USA, is this a local phenomenon?

i mean, if i go to www.weather.com it defaults to ours.. if i go to www.mapquest.com it defaults to us again.

i guess my question is, in order to default, does the net know from my IP origin, that i want american weather? or american roadways?

does anyone know this answer, or any other net peculiarities?

It can tell from your ISP I assume.

Uh ... if you went to Sauidi Arabia you'd get the same mapquest.com and wheather.com. They're reserved domain names (Unless that country or ISP has blocked the domain). Once you reserver them you can put whatever you please on them. It seems to me that in America, that domains are more of a buisness trend then in other countries, such as, EVERY company has a website, which originates in the US. I'm not saying other countries' companies don't have websites or anything, it just seems to be an incredibly common practice with buisness.

i think it must just be that most sites are american based. it's always american sites that i end up in when i click on any of those 'meet like-minded people in your area' type of links.

A better example is Google. If I type in google.com it redirects to google.ie

great edit there crono just in time too i might add :biggrin:

seriously tho, i wanna hear from non americans mostly, but i fear you're correct crono.

but, weather is indeed worldwide, it wasn't as if i said www.tigerdirect.com which is dedicated to american pc's.

the two sites i noted seem worldish ones to me.

if i wanted weather from the UK, and i did not wanna go thru a 1/2 dozen links at weather.com what site would i go to? same with road maps?

BTW this question is pointed toward any country.. i would be just as happy with Israels weather sites and India's for that matter :smile:

Alien_Sniper said:
A better example is Google. If I type in google.com it redirects to google.ie

so you do indeed have your own google dave???

i think it must just be that most sites are american based. it's always american sites that i end up in when i click on any of those 'meet like-minded people in your area' type of links.

I keep clicking those by accident too...

? posted by Jon The Great

so you do indeed have your own google dave???

Yeah, it's available in the Irish language too. :biggrin:

looks down to see if fly is open

what is it today? i ask questions and get asshole responces..

i was being serious dave.

Well .com is america's top level domain isn't it. .com is the one that american sites are supposed to have, so logically if you go to anysite.com, it's american, just like if you go to anysite.co.uk, its british, .co.fr, it's french, etc. The only difference is that in theory only a UK person can register a .co.uk name, wheras anyone can register a .com

So to answer your question, if I want UK weather, i go to weather.co.uk

So was I bud. You can view it in Irish.. not sure why anyone would want to but hey.

http://ip-to-country.webhosting.info/

PHP.net uses this to determine which mirror to use, and Google uses a similar system.

Weather.com and Mapquest.com are American-centred because that's what their target audience is. As Jeff said, .com is technically the American TLD, but it's become a de facto generic one now. Hence, Snarkpit.com, a british site :razz:

I'm confused ... what did A_S say to upset you??

By the way, the pages ARE worldwide. However, there are many things you can do to make it seem like it is only for that section. Such as this, you can detect the language of the browser (amongst other things) and redirect accordingly. You can even check which version of what OS the person is using (If they are using Windows, it depends on which language version they use).

But as for flat out domain sites ... they might have one they might not ... Orph, you're also saying this as if weather.com is the official weather site ... There are many. This is why there are language buttons on sites and such.

I mean, if their domains changed depending on their placement in the world there would be sites you would never be able to see. Technically right now there are sites you can't 'see' because your operating system and keyboard don't support the language they're using.

[EDIT]
Whatever happened to their prefix idea? Such as, gam.blah.com for a gaming site. I don't remember if they implimented them or not.
[/EDIT]

i posted this because i wanted to spark a new thread.

i posted this because i was genuinely curious.

posted by JON THE GREAT was a bit disconcerting crono.. you are not my psychoanalyst, stop pretending to be :biggrin:

and thanx for the responses thus far, i had never realized that .com was american by nature, since obviously snarkpit is not..

i have a massive bandwidth luxury, but i visit on average 3 sites per day, and possibly less than 20 different sites a year.

this topic, was not intended to incite a riot, i prefer it to remain informative...

thans jeff, and des for trying to answer my inquiry

hah, no problem :smile:

Jon, since I'm in non java mode it won't let me quote two quotes. I just put in Jon the Great messing. It wasn't sarcastic or anything malicious.

Alien_Sniper said:
Jon, since I'm in non java mode it won't let me quote two quotes. I just put in Jon the Great messing. It wasn't sarcastic or anything malicious.

dave my affection for you is boundless, but today is a grumpy day.. it just seems like i woke up and snarkpit is posting crap answers..

when all this is over, we can go out for drinks :smile:

your will be hot chocolate i assume :wink:

Your psychoanalyst? I was actually confused as to what he said that upset you ... anyway.

Crono said:
Your psychoanalyst? I was actually confused as to what he said that upset you ... anyway.

let it pass, crono.. i am tired, been driving way to long, and you are still new enuff to snarkpit to have missed much of its history.

i am not mad, i am grumpy... no reflection on present company.

jon the great was why.. dave knew it when he typed it :heee:

I think you're reading too deep into my random compliments Jon. :biggrin:

Alien_Sniper said:
I think you're reading too deep into my random compliments Jon. :biggrin:

yeah, i suppose.. it is un-dave tho..

you usually are not quite so... blatant.

compliment

i got myself a shiny new fx5900 ultra today. not that it has anything to do with this thread, i just thought i'd mention it. :biggrin:

anyways, as it was going on a new deluxe asus motherboard :biggrin: , (ok,.... i'll stop now :rolleyes: ) i had to do a fresh install of xp.

thats when i noticed one of the comments when setup asked what my language/location/stuff was. a line at the bottom of the screen said it was partly to do with regional weather, news etc.

so it looks like a built in feature if your running windows.