# Listen, Google stop fucking with my location
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [February 23, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757 "2012-02-23T18:38:37Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/1 "2012-02-23T18:38:37Z")
Dear Google,
Yes, I am in Germany. No, that does not mean that suddenly I speak German or want to go to [Google.de](http://Google.de). See those big metal things in the sky? Those things are called airplanes, and people use them to go from place to place. They do not magically turn Americans into Germans, just move them there. So when I do that, and go to [google.com](http://google.com) it does not fucking mean I want to go to [google.de](http://google.de).
When I give up trying to go to [google.com](http://google.com) and search for something in [google.de](http://google.de), do not fucking ask me if I want to search for English only sites. Of course I want to search for English only sites you fuckwit. I don’t fucking speak German and you should fucking know that. I’m logged into GMail and you have literally thousands of my searches recorded. Ever think to check and see, hey this fucker never searches in German, maybe he doesn’t want German pages.
And if I am using one of your products, click on help, do not, I repeat, do fucking not show me the help in German.
---
### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/2 "2012-02-23T19:02:32Z")
Too bad YouTube scrubbed them all; your post would make excellent subtitles for another _Downfall_ parody.
---
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/3 "2012-02-23T19:10:29Z")
So does a little paper clip come up and say “I see you are interested in annexing the Sudatenland! Would you like some help with that?”
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### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/4 "2012-02-23T19:17:27Z")
_Verpiss dich, Klippit!_
---
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/5 "2012-02-23T19:21:02Z")
Really don’t ask for directions to a good beer hall. That would pressing your luck.
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### Author:  [@Renee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Renee)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/6 "2012-02-23T19:54:36Z")
This drove me nuts when we lived in Japan. You’d go to [google.com](http://google.com) and it would redirect you to google.jp. Repeatedly. ARGH!
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### Author:  [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/7 "2012-02-23T20:01:59Z")
> [@elucidator](#):
>
> Really don’t ask for directions to a good beer hall. That would pressing your luck.
Yeah, that would be putsching it.
---
### Author:  [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/8 "2012-02-23T21:03:28Z")
And you know who else had a taste for atrocious puns? No, not him, don’t be silly, he had no sense of humor whatsoever! I mean **Vinny**!
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### Author:  [@Gangster\_Octopus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gangster_Octopus)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/9 "2012-02-23T22:04:23Z")
Are you on Chrome? If so, try this:
Click on the Wrench on the upper right hand corner and select Options, Under Options Select "Manage Search Engines:
1. Select one of the non-Google search engines as your default
2. Delete the Google search as your default
3. Create the Google search below with the following url “[%s - Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%25s)”
4. Make that Google search your default
Not sure if this will work for you, but I think it should.
---
### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/10 "2012-02-23T22:12:00Z")
> [@VinylTurnip](#):
>
> Too bad YouTube scrubbed them all; your post would make excellent subtitles for another _Downfall_ parody.
“Not [all of them](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4vz6-tJcVvI)”, he says self-promotingly. 😉
---
### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/11 "2012-02-23T22:51:10Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> Are you on Chrome? If so, try this:
>
> Click on the Wrench on the upper right hand corner and select Options, Under Options Select "Manage Search Engines:
>
> 1. Select one of the non-Google search engines as your default
> 2. Delete the Google search as your default
> 3. Create the Google search below with the following url “[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%25s)”
> 4. Make that Google search your default
>
> Not sure if this will work for you, but I think it should.
That’s how the firefox search is formatted, and it doesn’t matter. The only way I’ve figured out is to search through google mail. But that’s only good for one search before it reverts.
---
### Author:  [@treis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/treis)
#### Post date: [February 23, 2012, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/12 "2012-02-23T23:05:14Z")
> [@Gangster\_Octopus](#):
>
> Are you on Chrome? If so, try this:
>
> Click on the Wrench on the upper right hand corner and select Options, Under Options Select "Manage Search Engines:
>
> 1. Select one of the non-Google search engines as your default
> 2. Delete the Google search as your default
> 3. Create the Google search below with the following url “[Google Search](http://www.google.com/search?q=%25s)”
> 4. Make that Google search your default
>
> Not sure if this will work for you, but I think it should.
That’s how the firefox search is formatted, and it doesn’t matter. The only way I’ve figured out is to search through google mail. But that’s only good for one search before it reverts.
---
### Author:  [@Strinka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Strinka)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/13 "2012-02-24T00:01:39Z")
When I go to [google.de](http://google.de), I see in the lower right hand corner a link that says “[Google.com](http://Google.com) in English”, which brings you to [Google](http://www.google.com/ncr).
Does that work?
---
### Author:  [@Baron\_Greenback](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baron_Greenback)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/14 "2012-02-24T00:20:46Z")
> [@Strinka](#):
>
> When I go to [google.de](http://google.de), I see in the lower right hand corner a link that says “[Google.com](http://Google.com) in English”, which brings you to [Google](http://www.google.com/ncr).
>
> Does that work?
That url works everywhere I’ve tried it. It’s also visible on every regional Google home screen that I’ve seen.
---
### Author:  [@DETXL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DETXL)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/15 "2012-02-24T00:26:06Z")
It works (though not always consistently for me); more frustrating are mobile browsers, who occasionally feel compelled to redirect to sites that are mobile oriented _and_ in a language I’m not fluent in. Ads are a fun, necessary evil\*; I think I’m learning most of my German from unskippable ads before YouTube videos.
I agree, though, that it’s irritating indeed to have the site take my location and presume for me — Wikipedia does it nicely, I think; if you go to [wikipedia.org](http://wikipedia.org) it gives you a list of languages, rather than trying to guess. Amazon’s model works too; it’s really not that hard to remember “[amazon.de](http://amazon.de)” as separate from “[amazon.com](http://amazon.com).”
Wait until you try to use iTunes, **treis** (or really, any online store). Then you’ll discover how they require you to change your storefront to match the country indicated by your IP, and don’t offer an English localisation. Good luck with the terms of service! It’s really fun when you travel a lot on business, because then you can play the “which credit card will this company feel like taking right now?” roulette, too.
\*not meant wholly in jest actually. It’s been helpful, 'cause you see it over and over, and you generally know what they’re trying to say, and it’s short so you don’t zone out.
---
### Author:  [@jjimm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jjimm)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/16 "2012-02-24T00:34:17Z")
This happens to me. I’ve managed to fix it for all Google services now via settings, preferences, bla bla bla apart from News, which is in the wrong language no matter what I do - even fucking with the default language in the URL. It’s particularly problematic as the entire interface gets delivered in a language that isn’t Latin script so I can’t even have an educated guess at what it’s saying.
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### Author:  [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/17 "2012-02-24T05:32:50Z")
> [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#):
>
> Yeah, that would be putsching it.
Whatever you do…
**_Don’t_ mention the _war!_**
---
### Author:  [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/18 "2012-02-24T05:57:55Z")
I can’t believe no one has said “You should ask for your money back”.
😛
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### Author:  [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 7:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/19 "2012-02-24T07:50:34Z")
OP: Try using [Google](http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en) instead of [http://www.google.com/](http://www.google.com/)
Or screw google and use [https://ixquick.com/](https://ixquick.com/) 🆒
---
### Author:  [@Norse](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Norse)
#### Post date: [February 24, 2012, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/listen-google-stop-fucking-with-my-location/613757/20 "2012-02-24T07:59:49Z")
What really pisses me off with google is instant search. I don’t know how many times I’ve turned that “feature” off, but a couple of days later it’s back on. I don’t want instant search. It messes up my mind that my browser screen starts showing hits before I’ve typed my search terms. Can you hear me, google? Turn it off, I don’t want it. You hear? TURN IT OFF! TURN IT OFF!!! NOW!!! FOREVER!!! TURN… IT… OFF!!!1111!!! [Mrs. Borg]I’m calling THE POLICE! I did it! They’ll be here…shortly![/Mrs. Borg]
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