Solution If You Can't Access Google.com

Article by George Norman (Cybersecurity Editor)

on 18 Jun 2012

Something very peculiar happened this month: if you’re not from the US, Google won’t let you go back to Google.com or Google in English, it will redirect you to your localized version of Google Search.

Say you’re from Romania, and for international searches you rely on Google.com and for localized searches you rely on Google.ro. In the past you could switch between Google Romania (google.ro) and Google in English (google.com) by simply clicking on a link. Now, no matter what you do, Google will always redirect you to google.ro, the localized version of Google Search. It will not let you get to google.com.

Clicking on Google.com from the bottom right hand corner does not work. Typing in google.com in the address bar does not work either. Removing the cookies, cache, and other browsing history does not work. There is only one thing that seems to work: using the following URL: http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=nw.

It seems that by using the URL presented above you can access google.com and you won’t be redirected to your local version of Google Search. That’s certainly a relief for users who do not want to use the localized version of Google Search.

Another thing that seems to work (but you won’t notice until it’s too late) is to not use the localized version of Google Search. Take the Google Romania case again. If your homepage is set to Google.com and you don’t click on Google.ro, you’ll stay on Google.com and keep using this version of Google Search. If you go to Google.ro, you won’t be able to go back to Google.com – unless of course you use the URL provided above.

I’ve no idea why Google is not letting user switch between Google.com and their localized version of Google Search and I find it very annoying. I resent the fact that you’re not given the choice and the fact that the localized version of Google Search doesn’t offer the full functionality I’ve come to expect from Google.com.

The bottom line is that if you’re redirected to the localized version of Google Search and you can’t use Google.com, use the URL below to do so:
http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=en&tab=nw


UPDATE: The URL
http://www.google.com/ncr also takes you directly to Google.com without redirecting you.

UPDATE 2, posted June 19th - the issue seems to have been resolved and you can now change between Google.com and the localized version of Google Search.




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