click for larger pic

Problem:

Few weeks back Google introduced the Google.com.kw domain based results in FireFox. These search results turned up in Arabic which is not the primary language of many users like me. This became annoying as I had to switch to Google english everytime I would search for something manually. Unfortunately this behavior is by design from Google which redirects all search queries to localized domains and in turn in localized languages.

Resolution for OSX

This tweak requires a minor change in a file associated with FireFox. Follow the instructions at your own risk. And no this will not breakdown your computer.Look at the screenshots below for extra information.

1. Close FireFox if its running
2. From UTILITIES select and start Terminal Utility
3. In the Terminal window type cd / [this is cd + space + /]. This will bring you to the root of your system
4. Now type the following command cd Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/searchplugins/
5. Now type ls -l this will list all files in the directory. You are looking for a file called google.xml
6. Type this command cp -f google.xml google1.xyz this will create a copy of google.xml file in case anything goes wrong
7. Type and hit enter this command nano google.xml
8. You will see nano editor and the google.xml file listing
9. Now look at the file for a line that starts like this <Param name=
10. You have to add one line just before this line
11. Add <Param name=”hl” value=”en”/> line
12. Now press CTRL + X
13. Nano will ask you to save the file. Type Y and then hit enter
14. You will be back in the terminal directory listing
15. Start FireFox and now test your results by searching for using the Google search box

Screenshots for OSX [click for larger pics]

Terminal Utility in Utilities

Commands in Terminal Utility

google.xml editing in nano

Resolution for Windows

The steps are pretty much the same in regards to editing the google.xml file in Windows.

1. Close FireFox if its running
2. Open My Computer from your desktop or alternatively from START select RUN and type EXPLORER and hit enter
3. Now go to C:\ drive and look for Program Files folder
4. In this folder look for Mozilla Firefox > searchplugins folder [look at the screenshot below]
5. In this folder you will find google.xml file
6. Create a Copy of this file on some other location as a backup
7. Now go back to the google.xml file in C:\program files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins folder
8. Right click on google.xml file and select Open with WordPad [avoid notepad as the formatting is cluttered]
9. Look for a line that starts like this <Param name=
10. Add this line just above that line <Param name=”hl” value=”en”/>
11. Save the google.xml file
12. Start Firefox and test Google search results

Screenshots [click for larger pics]

Location of searchplugins folder

google.xml editing using wordpad

editing google.xml in WordPad