# YA Google Question: Canadian Google page
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [February 14, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813 "2009-02-14T12:33:14Z")
**Posts on this page:** 8
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/1 "2009-02-14T12:33:14Z")
Whenever I go to Google’s home page ( [http://www.google.com/](http://www.google.com/) ), I end up at their Canadian page. This has been happening for several days now. Any idea why? Did Google somehow get the idea that I live in Canada? Or is this just the first step in the Canadian takeover of the world?[sup]1[/sup]
Using Google Canada changes some of the results I get. For instance, I did a seach for the Comsumer Price Index and the first result was to the StatisticsCanada page on it rather than the US government page as I would expect.
I can get to the regular Google page by going to [google.us](http://google.us), which takes me to [Google](http://google.com/webhp), but I don’t want to change my link. And even there, I still get some things with a Canadian slant, such as the sponsored links.
[sup]1[/sup]I, for one, welcome our new Canadian overlords. But then, who doesn’t?
---
### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [February 14, 2009, 12:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/2 "2009-02-14T12:52:20Z")
In the page you get you can click on “preferences” and set your preference on that and other things. And you need to allow their cookies for it to work. If you delete your cookies you’ll have to start over again.
---
### Author:  [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 2:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/3 "2009-02-15T02:11:39Z")
I’d already checked the preferences page and couldn’t find anything there that indicated my country. Language, yes, but last I heard they speak English in Canada too.
I just went to Google to doublecheck my preferences and this time it went to the regular Google page. So perhaps something I did earlier (I did save my preferences because it had the wrong filtering set) fixed it.
I do wonder what I did to make it think I was Canadian. Went to too many Canadian pages, perhaps?
---
### Author:  [@engineer\_comp\_geek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/engineer_comp_geek)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/4 "2009-02-15T08:09:24Z")
It’s going by your IP address. Your ISP might go out into the world through a network connection that is located in Canada. It’s also possible that a browser hijack is routing and filtering all of your traffic through a computer somewhere in Canada.
---
### Author:  [@HongKongFooey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HongKongFooey)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/5 "2009-02-15T08:15:14Z")
> [@engineer\_comp\_geek](#):
>
> It’s also possible that a browser hijack is routing and filtering all of your traffic through a computer somewhere in Canada.
All part of our plan, BWAHAAH…uh, I’ve said too much…carry on
---
### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/6 "2009-02-15T10:23:38Z")
> [@dtilque](#):
>
> I’d already checked the preferences page and couldn’t find anything there that indicated my country. Language, yes, but last I heard they speak English in Canada too.
When I travel, like in China, I get the local Google, like [google.cn](http://google.cn), but in the main front page I also get a link “go to [google.com](http://google.com)”. You don’t have that?
---
### Author:  [@JimNightshade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JimNightshade)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/7 "2009-02-15T10:48:33Z")
Use [Google](http://www.google.com/ncr) as your home page and it will not redirect to your country specific version.
---
### Author:  [@sailor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sailor)
#### Post date: [February 15, 2009, 12:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ya-google-question-canadian-google-page/485813/8 "2009-02-15T12:02:16Z")
> [@JimNightshade](#):
>
> Use [Google](http://www.google.com/ncr) as your home page and it will not redirect to your country specific version.
Heh. I can’t believe I did not remember that. It is my home page.