• see smart keywords

Take advantage of smart bookmarks and keywords, and make a keyword, maybe a short as a single letter g, you then use that for whatever the google link is you require. Now you can type in g in the location bar and hit return to go direct to the link. Or even g and a search term, and it will search on that link for that search term.

You could even enter google.com as a keyword that would effectively redirect as you wished. (You can add keywords to bookmarks from the bookmarks manager, not just from the right clicking the search box of a search engine)

Some sites automatically redirect you to a site in the local language, based on where your IP locates you.
There is usually a link on such websites choose a language or go to an international version that allows to chose the language.

If the Google (Firefox) or Yahoo! home page is in the wrong language then see:

• Google: http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=873
• Yahoo!: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/homepage/homepage/basics/troubleshoot-02.html