[Rant] Forced geolocation-informed redirects piss me off

[Case]

Alright, so I just went to check a certain site with the extension .com because I am only interested in the English content. Since I am not using TOR or a proxy or anything, the site reads my IP, finds out I am in Germany and zing! redirects me to the German .de site instead. Seriously, how fucking stupid is this? Do they think they're doing me a service by assuming I am incapable of choosing WHICH SITE I WANT TO VISIT? Infuriating. Google is similarly annoying as it redirects you to the 'localised' version of google as well, but at least you CAN choose a different domain by manually clicking on a link.

Idiots.

 

[Duvelthehobbit666]

I have a similar problem with youtube. My google chrome is in dutch but I want my youtube location to be worldwide. Every time I close the youtube tab, and go to youtube after, it automatically makes my location the Netherlands, yet I constantly change it to worldwide. You would expect that when I choose my location to worldwide, I want it to stay worldwide.

 

[CosmicJoghurt]

I have a similar problem with youtube. My google chrome is in dutch but I want my youtube location to be worldwide. Every time I close the youtube tab, and go to youtube after, it automatically makes my location the Netherlands, yet I constantly change it to worldwide. You would expect that when I choose my location to worldwide, I want it to stay worldwide.

Bookmark the the worldwide page, and click the bookmark when you want to go to YT

 

[DepricatedZero]

If it's any comfort, I avoid such behaviors when I design a site. The most I would do is offer localization.

As a rule, an application(including a web app) should never assume it knows more than the user and force them into a position that changes the experience from what other users have.