Google Maps doesn't have actual maps for all countries – so it becomes mostly useless in those countries.

In recent years lawmakers have had a frenzy incorporating the internet into new laws. As they do that, international businesses are inevitably responding by specializing their offerings.

Don't think I'm defending it; just attempting to explain it. I've been on the internet since 1993, and in the early 1990s we understood the internet as a means to communicate and exchange information, activities that "obviously" should be free. Back then, people said things like "the internet is international, so no government will be able to regulate it", but how wrong they turned out to be.

Anyway, I have had an AdSense account for several years. It has always been denominated in US dollars, which suits me fine as they are for many purposes the currency of the internet (and my website's sales are in US dollars).

A couple of months ago, AdSense sent me an email saying that I could now switch my account to UK pounds if I wished. But then Google soured it by telling me that if I didn't switch voluntarily, I would soon be forced to switch.

And now, every time I visit AdSense I get an interstitial screen inviting me to switch now, or be reminded later. No doubt in a short time it will be "switch now, or lose your AdSense account".

Why does Google tempt us with the options if we can't use them?

For example why bother showing us a video on Youtube if we can't actually view it? Why not just not display it in the first place?

Google Mobile App (for iPhone) is not available in Romanian iTunes store. Why is that?

This is probably just temporary, but I don't have labs in google calendar yet. And I don't know anyone in the Netherlands who has it at this time. Also, I got an invite for Google Phone, but that isn't working in the Netherlands either.

The restricting new features to English only is a logical decision as it avoids the costs of internationalisation if the feature is changed or not implemented.

> For example why bother showing us a video on Youtube if we can't actually view it? Why not just not display it in the first place?

Because then some people will scream "Censorship!". The same thing happened with Google News in China.
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2004/09/china-google-news-and-source-inclusion.html

The following features are now only available in India Only.

Google Noticeboard (http://labs.google.co.in/noticeboard/index.html)
Google SMS channels (http://labs.google.co.in/smschannels/browse)
In Quotes (http://labs.google.com/inquotes/#edition=2)

May be it is the fact that Google is a US company and that almost half of world's online ad dollars is for America..

Bryce
Then why not at least add the new features to "English (UK)" as well?

It's OK to restrict features to some languages, but when you can't switch language (and get more features) when you come from another country, it's really annoying. Happens quite often with Google's different mobile interfaces.

Another example is with Firefox and Chrome, when you mark a word, right-click and do a Google search. Then it automatticaly prefer Google with country domain from where you surf from, with different results and top toolbar/functions.

Oh, and Google Docs and Spreadsheet doesn't support Unicode/International characters when you try to import data from the web. Very annoying. Also problems with form and letters.

Google Voice is only available for the US.

The Youtube restrictions can be very annoying.

I was pretty happy when records companies started Official Artists Channels on Youtube. And in a way, it was giving another reason to not upload copyrighted content, since the artist/record company would take care of providing that content on Youtube.

Now, here (in Belgium), I can't watch any videos on most official channels, and when US friends send me links to music videos, I can't play them.

So if someone from the "restricted zone" wants to have this or that song available on Youtube, he'll end up uploading it again. Lesson learned : 0.

I don't even get the logic behind that... weren't music videos supposed to actually promote an artist ?

Weezer's Pork&Beans, for example, was pretty buzz-inducing... why Universal doesn't want me to see that ?

dpneal
<<Why does Google tempt us with the options if we can't use them?>>

I don't know Google's reasons, but as a French citizen I'm glad they keep showing up restricted content. I prefer to be angry about stupid restrictions than ignoring them, because if you start hiding what I can't access, I will never know what I miss and never request the rights to access it.

For instance, I regularly visit Digg and Reddit, both of which often feature Hulu's videos. Those video are US-only but since foreigners complain about them, American users always offer alternatives. If we didn't know about those videos because websites would hide inaccessible entries, people would stop trying to overcome geo-targetting barriers, and the Web would fragment itself even more.

So, I hate restrictions but if they exist, I want everyone to be angry about them.

Google Hot Trends!!!

great application but good only for us user....

should be offered in different langauge and region...

Google Latitude.. This I really can't understand. I can use this on my phone but not as a webapp? Why? Ridiculous!

the central thesis of this post should have been how special interests are destroying the integrity of the internet

https://services.google.com/fb/forms/wavesignup/ for wave sign up is not working from IRAN and also code.google.com
The question is: Why Google (or others) block PEOPLE of some countries?

triphen : Google Hot Trends is available in few others countries.
India : http://www.google.co.in/trends/hottrends
There is also Canada, South Korea, India, Japan, Hong-Kong, UK, Russia, Taïwan and Singapore.

I'm still waiting for other countries too...

In some cases why don't you just say censored instead?

The weird one is www.google.com/logos/
It is a page with Google logos, often plug by Google, but is some countries, including Poland the URL just shows 404 page. No message. Nothing. Just 404. No apparent reason.

Even Google itself after receiving reports about 404s on Twitter, seems to not know about the restriction and just posts the direct link again, thinking people are just getting the URL wrong (see http://twitter.com/google/status/1739881432).

It's unfortunate that Google Voice is not available in all countries but at the moment it's currently in Beta. It's slowly being released to the public on an invite basis only. Learn how to apply at www.voicetalk.org/invites

[Unlinked – Tony]

Why talking about rights?
As far as I know google has no liabilities with respect to the internet users.
Google is free to discriminate users, and users are free not to use google.
Being not evil appeared to be not more than a marketing moto :)

...and users are also free to discuss its actions and policies. As we do.

...and symmetrically google neverminds our discussions and continues to depress the usability of its services.

The bad thing is that google now is almost the synonym to the internet for most of users.

ditu.google.com and music.google.cn only available in China.

1. Google checkout cannot work in China
2. Google android market cannot work in China