# Why is Google's main page in a foreign language?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-googles-main-page-in-a-foreign-language/420067>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [September 22, 2007, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-googles-main-page-in-a-foreign-language/420067 "2007-09-22T02:46:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![ambushed](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3bc359/32.png) [@ambushed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ambushed)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2007, 12:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-googles-main-page-in-a-foreign-language/420067/21 "2007-09-23T00:46:47Z")

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[QUOTE=Sunspace]  
It could be aliens. Maltese aliens. In which case you may be lucky, because Maltese women can be _hot_ (at least, the one I knew slightly back in Oshawa was).  
[/QUOTE]  
The Maltese Women on Mars have told me I must not tell anyone of their existence or they’ll XXurtjat me all over again, so mum’s the word…

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**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\
**Post date:** [September 23, 2007, 1:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-googles-main-page-in-a-foreign-language/420067/22 "2007-09-23T13:34:45Z")

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[QUOTE=Derleth]  
It shouldn’t be possible, but neither should it have been possible to get out of Casablanca.  
[/QUOTE]

[Sydney Greenstreet ON]Would you like to buy an exit visa?[Sydney Greenstreet OFF]

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**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\
**Post date:** [September 24, 2007, 12:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-googles-main-page-in-a-foreign-language/420067/23 "2007-09-24T00:40:30Z")

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FWIW, this has happened to be before too. Only it wasn’t the Google homepage, it was during some sessions in Google Webmaster Tools or AdWords (or both, I forget). I was “stuck” in Korean. Better yet, I was logged in so my account profile decided I always wanted to be in Korean and set me up as such, even on a different machine.

Anyhoo, I did some searching on Google message boards and I guess this happens to other people from time to time, and the best way to “reset” it is to specifically add **?hl=en** to the URL (or just hl=en if there’s already a ? in the URL) to force Google into being English.

It also hasn’t happened to me since…this was maybe a year ago.

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