Searching from the address bar defaults to google.com - how to do I change this to UK?
HI there
When I type a search into the address bar (e.g. gymnastic rings) the search defaults to google.com, showing me results in USD and other useless information for me, living in the UK. How do I change this to default to google.co.uk search?
Thanks
Chosen solution
I don't know whether it's an oversight, but according to a check done the other day in the following thread, the en-GB built of Firefox has a Google search plugin directed to .com: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2954981
Maybe it was .co.uk before, or maybe Google used to redirect it, I don't know. For the moment, you might install a U.K.-directed search plugin from the following page and make that your default:
http://mycroftproject.com/google-search-plugins.html
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Disclaimer: I am using the EN-US version of Firefox and don't know which Google search plugin comes with the EN-UK version. My experience came with Google search plugins that I had installed myself, which provided different features from the default plugin. The default "Google" search plugin got moved out of that folder with all the other default search plugins for Firefox 40 into program files > omni.ja, to keep malware from replacing the the default plugins for one with the same "name". Now you can't have a same named search plugin in the /searchplugins/ folder - Firefox will ignore it in lieu of the "defaults" and won't use it as it did prior to Fx 40. For me the "addon" search plugin didn't appear at all.
If you added a Google-UK search plugin in the past it may have been disabled with Firefox 40 due to it having the same "short name" as the default Google plugin. I found out the "hard way" when 2 Google search plugins I had installed for many years just "disappeared" altogether.
You can "fix" it like this: Help > Troubleshooting Information => Profile Folder - Show Folder >> then close Firefox while leaving your Profile Folder open.
Locate the /searchplugins/ folder and open it. Look for a google.xml file. Right-click and open that file in a text editor program like Notepad or WordPad - then edit the < os:ShortName > to something else. I just added a hyphen to it to make it unique. Then save the edited google.xml file - I added a hyphen to the name, too. Making it google-.xml to differentiate from the "default - not sure if that is necessary though.
Then start Firefox.
Chosen Solution
I don't know whether it's an oversight, but according to a check done the other day in the following thread, the en-GB built of Firefox has a Google search plugin directed to .com: http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2954981
Maybe it was .co.uk before, or maybe Google used to redirect it, I don't know. For the moment, you might install a U.K.-directed search plugin from the following page and make that your default: