6 ms·

Dear Google, My browser (and by my browser I mean YOUR browser) is sending the header 'accept-language: en-US,en;q=0.8' on every request, because it is configu

Dear Google, My browser (and by my browser I mean YOUR browser) is sending the header 'accept-language: en-US,en;q=0.8' on every request, because it is configured to prefer pages in English. Therefore, THIS is not what I want to see when I load a page: http://imgur.com/AcugEjZ http://imgur.com/AcugEjZ Please stop detecting language based on IP when there's a perfectly good setting for it. People travel, you know? You do it on Blogger too - shame on you. :/

jaredandrews 10y ago
I'm on a VPN out of Tampa Florida and I see the same page but in Spanish. Shakin' my head.
Buge 10y ago
I wonder how many people there are with browsers sending en-US but who want non-English results. The current behavior might make more people happy, at least in the short term.
- int_19h 10y ago
  Well, it's their browser. If it's doing that (requesting en-US rather than OS locale) when it shouldn't, they ought to fix it.
  - xtreme 10y ago
    While that would be ideal, from Google's point of view the number of travelers is so small that it might be more sensible to cater to the native users. Also, on average they are less likely to know how to change these settings or that such settings even exist.
    - int_19h 10y ago
      Native users who have their locale set to English often also prefer websites to serve them English, at least until they ask otherwise. And such people most certainly know how to change the setting, or that the setting in question exists. After all, they did change the locale in their OS (or installed an English version of it, instead of the one localized for their market).
    - prodmerc 10y ago
      If I search in English, why the hell would they display local results? Makes no sense. Used to be you could use Google.com, and later Google.ca or co.uk (because .com started auto-redirecting to your local tld), but not anymore.
- yellowapple 10y ago
  Is that not controlled by the OS locale settings? Or are non-English-speaking people just using their computers entirely in English?
- Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago
  I don't think there are many. Typically the browser gets the locale from the OS, and the OS is sold with the locale of the place where it's bought. I don't think I know anyone who has the browser in en-US without their knowledge.
  - Noughmad 10y ago
    Almost everybody with pirated Windows.
Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago
I wish Google catered to user preferences in this. I am from Spain, but often strongly prefer to search for stuff in English (for example for news, as I want to avoid the hyperpartisan Spanish media). No matter what I do: even if I have the browser configured in English, Google configured to use English, and I go to google.co.uk instead of google.es, I type e.g. "Trump" in the search box and most of the results are in Spanish. I do get some English results, but on page 2. The world is multilingual, actually there are estimates that over 50% of the world population is at least bilingual (even if this is not the case in the US, where the proportion is about 25%). You have an awesome search engine, is it that hard to add an option to choose the language or languages in which to search (possibly changing between searches, as we actually use different languages for different stuff, e.g. I teach in Spanish but do research in English) and then showing results in those languages unbiased by language? PS: funnily enough, I see this particular page about the gnome in English.
- cyborgx7 10y ago
  I get the feeling that to a lot of americans, the concept of speaking more than one language is something wierd and unusual. If it happens, it's mostly because auf migration from one country to another. And if someone learns another language to a fluent level without moving to a different country it's an impressive achievement.
  - mobilefriendly 10y ago
    It isn't weird, almost all Americans study a second language in high school (or earlier). But it is unusual to achieve any facility with a second language, outside of Spanish in LA or Miami.
    - scrollaway 10y ago
      No, it is different, and it applies to most of the anglosphere outside of dual-language countries like Canada. In most of the non-english-speaking western world, almost everybody studies English as a second language and a lot of people study a third language in high school.
Symbiote 10y ago
Also ridiculous: if I search "weather Copenhagen" the information is displayed in Fahrenheit and mph, which is completely useless to me. I've found no way to change this. I'm in Denmark, the browser sends en-IE.
- aembleton 10y ago
  What happens if you try in DuckDuckGo? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weather+in+Copenhagen&t=lm&atb=v55-6&ia=weather https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weather+in+Copenhagen&t=lm&atb=v55...
  - Nullabillity 10y ago
    Fahrenheit and MPH too, from Sweden.
    - aembleton 10y ago
      Here in the UK it shows as Celsius and m/s MPH would actually make sense here but they don't even use that. Really strange. [EDIT]: I just tried it in a private tab and sure enough get Fahrenheit and MPH. It can't be that hard for them to localise this.
  - rrrrrh 10y ago
    There is a setting under settings tab in DuckDuckGo called units of measurement. Everyone can change it.
- JD557 10y ago
  If I search for "weather" on http://www.google.com http://www.google.com, I get the weather in Portuguese (Portugal). However, if I perform the same query on http://encrypted.google.com http://encrypted.google.com, I get the weather in Portuguese (Brazil).
boomboomsubban 10y ago
Duckduckgo has this solved, with a regions option at the top of the search results and cookies that save your choice. Not useful for the Google April fools joke though.
Nutomic 10y ago
Google is really bad with this. This is especially annoying as an expat who doesn't speak the local language. I'm really glad I switched away from Google a long time ago (using startpage.com for search).
- quicklime 10y ago
  When I was an expat, I used to use google.com/ncr ("no country redirect") to avoid being redirected to a results page I couldn't understand.

jaredandrews 10y ago

I'm on a VPN out of Tampa Florida and I see the same page but in Spanish. Shakin' my head.

Buge 10y ago

I wonder how many people there are with browsers sending en-US but who want non-English results. The current behavior might make more people happy, at least in the short term.

int_19h 10y ago
Well, it's their browser. If it's doing that (requesting en-US rather than OS locale) when it shouldn't, they ought to fix it.
- xtreme 10y ago
  While that would be ideal, from Google's point of view the number of travelers is so small that it might be more sensible to cater to the native users. Also, on average they are less likely to know how to change these settings or that such settings even exist.
  - int_19h 10y ago
    Native users who have their locale set to English often also prefer websites to serve them English, at least until they ask otherwise. And such people most certainly know how to change the setting, or that the setting in question exists. After all, they did change the locale in their OS (or installed an English version of it, instead of the one localized for their market).
  - prodmerc 10y ago
    If I search in English, why the hell would they display local results? Makes no sense. Used to be you could use Google.com, and later Google.ca or co.uk (because .com started auto-redirecting to your local tld), but not anymore.
yellowapple 10y ago
Is that not controlled by the OS locale settings? Or are non-English-speaking people just using their computers entirely in English?
Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago
I don't think there are many. Typically the browser gets the locale from the OS, and the OS is sold with the locale of the place where it's bought. I don't think I know anyone who has the browser in en-US without their knowledge.
- Noughmad 10y ago
  Almost everybody with pirated Windows.

Al-Khwarizmi 10y ago

I wish Google catered to user preferences in this. I am from Spain, but often strongly prefer to search for stuff in English (for example for news, as I want to avoid the hyperpartisan Spanish media). No matter what I do: even if I have the browser configured in English, Google configured to use English, and I go to google.co.uk instead of google.es, I type e.g. "Trump" in the search box and most of the results are in Spanish. I do get some English results, but on page 2. The world is multilingual, actually there are estimates that over 50% of the world population is at least bilingual (even if this is not the case in the US, where the proportion is about 25%). You have an awesome search engine, is it that hard to add an option to choose the language or languages in which to search (possibly changing between searches, as we actually use different languages for different stuff, e.g. I teach in Spanish but do research in English) and then showing results in those languages unbiased by language? PS: funnily enough, I see this particular page about the gnome in English.

cyborgx7 10y ago
I get the feeling that to a lot of americans, the concept of speaking more than one language is something wierd and unusual. If it happens, it's mostly because auf migration from one country to another. And if someone learns another language to a fluent level without moving to a different country it's an impressive achievement.
- mobilefriendly 10y ago
  It isn't weird, almost all Americans study a second language in high school (or earlier). But it is unusual to achieve any facility with a second language, outside of Spanish in LA or Miami.
  - scrollaway 10y ago
    No, it is different, and it applies to most of the anglosphere outside of dual-language countries like Canada. In most of the non-english-speaking western world, almost everybody studies English as a second language and a lot of people study a third language in high school.

Symbiote 10y ago

Also ridiculous: if I search "weather Copenhagen" the information is displayed in Fahrenheit and mph, which is completely useless to me. I've found no way to change this. I'm in Denmark, the browser sends en-IE.

aembleton 10y ago
What happens if you try in DuckDuckGo? https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weather+in+Copenhagen&t=lm&atb=v55-6&ia=weather https://duckduckgo.com/?q=weather+in+Copenhagen&t=lm&atb=v55...
- Nullabillity 10y ago
  Fahrenheit and MPH too, from Sweden.
  - aembleton 10y ago
    Here in the UK it shows as Celsius and m/s MPH would actually make sense here but they don't even use that. Really strange. [EDIT]: I just tried it in a private tab and sure enough get Fahrenheit and MPH. It can't be that hard for them to localise this.
- rrrrrh 10y ago
  There is a setting under settings tab in DuckDuckGo called units of measurement. Everyone can change it.
JD557 10y ago
If I search for "weather" on http://www.google.com http://www.google.com, I get the weather in Portuguese (Portugal). However, if I perform the same query on http://encrypted.google.com http://encrypted.google.com, I get the weather in Portuguese (Brazil).

boomboomsubban 10y ago

Duckduckgo has this solved, with a regions option at the top of the search results and cookies that save your choice. Not useful for the Google April fools joke though.

Nutomic 10y ago

Google is really bad with this. This is especially annoying as an expat who doesn't speak the local language. I'm really glad I switched away from Google a long time ago (using startpage.com for search).

quicklime 10y ago
When I was an expat, I used to use google.com/ncr ("no country redirect") to avoid being redirected to a results page I couldn't understand.