Wife’s Google account. She took her laptop to Germany, and since then, Google defaults to German. Yes, I know the drill, open settings, click language, choose English and USA. Been there done that in two different browsers. Done the same thing in google.com. All of those settings commands are in English. It says it is set to English and USA, but when going to google search engine, it comes up as Google Deutscch, in German. If she checks her Gmail on my computer, then MY Google starts displaying in German, until I sign her out and me back in.
Wouldn’t really care that much, except that it is impossible to download the Phone Plugin if Google does not recognize the account to be English/USA, so she is locked out of that feature. Yes, she is physically present in the USA and so am I…
I’ve cleared the cache in Chrome in my computer, and I no longer get German Google. But that will have no effect in her computer. I then tried again to download the google phone plugin in her account using my computer, and it failed to activate. She is using Windows 8 and Chrome. Phone Plugin works fine in my Gmail account in my computer using Vista/ Firefox.
There are several places to change language. Have you gone to this (less obvious?) page, and clicked Languages etc.? When I have the problem, that’s the hardest-to-find setting.
(My machine is physically in Thailand; I’ve set lots of settings to English/U.S.A. but still get Thai sometimes. Google Books often presents in Thai, despite that I’ve changed all the Google settings I know of.)
Look man - Google is a really big company. They have lots of money so they must be. And they do lots of things. They index the whole INTERNET. They make driveless cars. They serve free food to their employees. They have different pictures on their homepage every day.
When you think about it, who are you to say that you should be using the Internet in English? Do you have lots of money and index the Internet? You probably don’t.
Just let it be German, or Thai. Whatever Google has chosen for you, man.
You didn’t get the point, man. Google offers US customers a Phone Plugin, for free phone calls to any number in the US. Google refuses to make that service available, because they do not recognize the account as being in the USA, because it was configured for German.
Google DOES have enough time to look at every single account, and if it is in a name “that does not appear to be a real name”, they disable the profile. There is a provision for a person so disabled to appeal directly to Google, by submitting evidence that that is their real name. My wife, who has a common name (like “Jane Miller”) has had her profile disabled, because a human being at Google had time to look at is and decide that it did not look like a real name, and somebody at Google has enough time to process the appeal. We’re waiting for the appeal to see if that is why her Phone Plugin is denied.
Google Uber Alles. Get used to it. The Oligarchy marches on.
I love Google. We went to see a band and I had to park about a half mile from the venue. Later, walking back toward the car, I checked my phone and Google asked if I needed assistance finding where I had parked. I did. Google directed me. It was a bit freaky.
