A few weeks ago, Google decided I live in Taiwan. More specifically, it decided my IPv6 netblock is in Taiwan. I have an IPv6 tunnelbroker allocation from HE, 2001:470:1f05:22e::/64, and while I’m not sure if it affects all of 2001:470::/32, apparently I’m not alone. It’s a relatively minor annoyance, but it crops up in a lot of places:

  • While it remembers my language “override” of English for www.google.com, there’s still a link at the bottom-right for google.com.tw. As if it’s asking, “are you SURE you don’t want to revert to your mother language?”
  • If I open up, say, Chromium Incognito to visit a site without cookies or any saved credentials, google.com is full-on Chinese.
  • AdSense ads are unreadable to me. Likewise the header at the top of Blogger blogs.
  • Some YouTube videos won’t display for me due to per-country content restrictions.
  • I had been on the fence about whether or not to buy a Nexus 4 or Nexus 7, to play around with. However, Google Play has made the decision for me. “Sorry! Devices on Google Play is not available in your country yet.”

Google does have a form to address such errors, which I did fill out, but the general gist is, “Google works in mysterious ways. I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you.”