Permanently Set ‘Google.com’ as Your Preferred Domain Version of Google Homepage
When a non-US user visits the Google homepage, they are automatically redirected to the local version of the search engine for that country. This country version can be identified by looking at its tld (postfix after the dot sign in the domain name) which is Google.co.in for Indian users, Google.co.uk for British users, and so on. This redirection happens because Google believes that the local country data is more relevant and can give more information to what a user is looking for on the web.
Now, if you rather prefer the international Google.com version for its better results or for the latest features then we had an article to stop Google country search but this method may not always work.
Here is a quick solution to set Google.com as your preferred Google homepage which works perfectly in Chrome.
- First of all, close all Chrome windows
- Then open your chrome user profile directory. Locations vary by operating system, you find yours at:
- Windows XP:
%USERPROFILE%\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\
- Windows Vista and Windows 7:
%LOCALAPPDATA%\Google\Chrome\User Data\
- Mac OS X:
~/Library/Application Support/Google/Chrome/Default
- Linux:
~/.config/google-chrome/Default
- In that directory, open the file named “Local State” in your favorite text editor. Note that it doesn’t have an extension.
- Now search for “last_known_google_url” and change the Google URL from from “http://www.google.tld/” (.tld=.co.in, .co.uk, etc.) to “http://www.google.com/.” Do the same for “last_prompted_google_url” as well.
- Once you have made the changes to both lines, just save the file and restart your Chrome browser.
One of our reader Venu was having problem with this method as she pointed out in her commented. So I have made a video with the above steps:
That’s it! Try visiting Google and you should land on the global Google.com page. Following the same steps, you can also set any localized country specific Google version as the homepage.
Note: If you get a prompt to switch to your local domain, choose the second – ‘keep google.com’ – option.
via Google Operating System Blog
I tried the above but I kept on getting redirected.
So I did the above with this modification – use google.com/ncr instead of just google.com – and it now works.
Thanks for the tip.
@Wujae – Thats a nifty trick. Thanks for sharing. I will soon modify the article.
It’s not working even with google.com/ncr..
@Venu
Are you sure? Because its working perfectly fine for me with “http://www.google.com/ncr“
Please see this. I’ve recorded a video.
Please see this. I’ve recorded a video. http://www.screenr.com/sr6s
Hello venu, you will probabaly find this screencast useful.
http://www.screenr.com/Jz6s
You were doing two things wrong:
1) You have not completly closed chrome, just opened new window. You must RESTART Chrome.
2) Again, dont reload that local state file. Close it and then reopen it.