Readers around the world are presumed to know that "Dublin" is a small San Francisco suburb.

[Towlie]

Headline: "Accident at Dublin water park"

Some people just don't seem to realize how big the world is, and that the "World Wide Web" is exactly that.

[Voltaire2]

1. Most of your links were regional. The others explained where Dublin is.

[Towlie]

3. They're Google's links, not mine. And I'm in Florida, yet I was misled that this was in Ireland.

It's not just a modern Internet problem, it's been around at least since H. G. Wells wrote a story he called "War of the Worlds", where several objects were observed being launched from Mars and all of them attacked England.

[padfun]

2. It wont be small for long. Everyday it is "Dublin"

OK, bad joke.

[Towlie]

4. ... and there will be ire in Ireland.

[left-of-center2012]

5. I used to live in Portland

So when I hear news about Portland, I wonder which one.

(Oh, I lived in Portland, ME)

[Jamaal510]

6. I always

considered Dublin as a suburb of Oakland, since both are situated in the East Bay.

[yuiyoshida]

8. Exactly!

[csziggy]

7. A friend once told a supervisor about his "extensive travel in Cairo"

The supervisor was impressed since she assumed he was referring to Cairo, Egypt, but the Cairo he was talking about is a small town in South Georgia.

He could have talked about visiting Gretna or Havana and gotten similar reactions. She might have thought he was talking about Gretna Green in Scotland or Havana, Cuba - but the local Gretna is a tiny town in North Florida. Havana is a little larger and not too far from Gretna.

There are also the problems of Greenville and Greensboro - many states have one or both of those names for towns and if you don't know which state the one you are talking about it can get very confusing.

People should never assume that a city or town do not need a designation!