Google.co.uk in Greek

 by Martin Belam, 15 May 2006

Now that I have moved outside the UK I have more of an interest than I used to in the successful localisation of products. I came across a strange one I wasn't expecting the other day. I am doing some research on search in the UK, so have been specifically requesting google.co.uk. However, because I was in an internet cafe using a Greek installation of Firefox I got this page - Google.co.uk in Greek.

Google.co.uk search homepage in Greek

Firstly I was surprised that there even was a version of the .co.uk flavoured Google search homepage in Greek. What was interesting though was that they chose to serve me the Greek language version based on I guess, either my IP or my browser's referrer string, or a combination of the two, when I was logged in to my very English (UK) Google account.

6 Comments

Greek people live in the UK, I guess...

>> Greek people live in the UK, I guess...

Oh absolutely - I think it works well when it is targeted right. It would be a result for me if similarly when I typed in google.com I didn't get redirected based on my IP address to google.gr in Greek, but instead got a version in English based on my browser settings :-)

Even weirder is that you didn't get a different language based on your Google Account settings.

:/

great well done about time too

i have the same problem too. when i try to enter google.com i get redirected to google.gr. can anyone help me how to disable this? thx

I think you have to change your local settings on the pc to english uk, otherwise it will take you to whatever version the system local specifies.

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