Firefox Google search plugin and locale redirection
Because the work that I produce is more often than not created primarily for a U.S. audience, I find it distinctly annoying that google.com redirects my searches via the Firefox Google search plugin to google.ca. While this redirection is intended to be helpful, it often slips my mind that the SERPs are being generated from google.ca, skewing the results of my research. The fix is surprisingly simple: it's all about one little cookie.
- Delete google.com and google.ca cookies;
- Close then restart Firefox;
- Do a search via the Google search plugin. You will be shown results from google.ca;
- Click the "Go to Google.com" text link at the bottom right of the page.* You are now shown results from google.com and all subsequent searches via the plugin will now show google.com results.
- Lastly, add one of the google.ca search plugins from Mycroft for those special times when you need to search for hockey, maple syrup, back bacon or the birthplace of PHP.
* UPDATE: The Go to Google.com link is now found on the Home page of Google.ca, so you'll need to click Home, then Go to Google.com to set the preference.
May 15th, 2006 at 2:18 pm
That works great Sam, thanks for the tip
May 16th, 2006 at 11:26 am
Glad you found it useful! I didn't really notice the redirection until some of the sites I monitor started getting unreal rankings. It didn't take me too long to see that those favourable SERPS were being generated from google.ca instead of .com, and those sites are mostly hosted in Canada hence the excellent positioning. Back over on the .com SERPS, the rankings are not quite as dreamy.
May 17th, 2006 at 11:51 am
I was experiencing exactly the same thing. b e e r k o o z i e s dot com ranked 1st on the .ca long before it made the first page for .com. Recently (within the past few months) the positions were close (1st for .ca and like 2nd, 3rd for .com) which made it very easy to get them confused. Its a real downer when you get all excited seeing your title at #1\2 and then you glance up to the old address bar and realize that you have dooped yourself. Ah, well. Back to the SEOing board