Skip to main content

browser - Firefox modifying google searchplugin to not country redirect


I'm trying to modify the google.xml file in the browser/searchplugins folder in a way that it won't country redirect anymore. For example, to always reach the german google site, I have changed the last lines of the google.xml to this:



  
......



At first, after restarting firefox, it didn't seem to have changed anything, however the next day when I started firefox, the changes seemed to have taken effect, because when I tried to google something, an Error Message was displayed aka "Uknown URL /ncr/search".


I now would like to know, how I can FORCE FF to reload the plugin immediately so I don't have to wait one day to test each change I made. Also it would be nice to know of course, how I need to modify the google.xml correctly.



Answer



Doing more research, I found out that FF can be forced to reload modified searchplugins by deleting the search.js in %AppData%\\Mozilla\\Firefox\\Profiles\\[ID].default\\ or the linux equivalent folder.


To actually get google to not redirect anymore, the following changes need to be made to the google.xml in the ....\\Mozilla Firefox\\browser\\searchplugins\\ folder:


in Line 13 change google.com/search to google.de/search or the TLD of your country. It should now be




in Line 27 change google.com to google.de/ncr. It should now be




save it (Admin rights may be required). Delete the search.js mentioned earlier and restart firefox.


This got me working results for FF 32.0.3


UPDATE: In the FF35.0 Update, the syntax of the google.xml file seems to have changed. It's sufficient to change line 13 as mentioned above. Line 27 has been removed. Don't forget to delete the search.js


UPDATE 2: Since FF40.0, the default search plugin xmls are not available as plain text anymore. The new recommended way is to install the google US (no country redirect) search plugin from Mycroft (see answer below) and and modify the xml in FF's AppData Folder to one's needs.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

keyboard - Is there any utility/method to change Windows key bindings to type rare chars to currently empty bindings?

I'm currently typing this post with my windows XP machine and (Spanish) keyboard, and I'd like to add some extra symbols to my text. I could open the "char map" windows utility, look for the desired symbols, and paste them. But I'd like something quickier. For example, when I'm using my OSX Mac at work, I can easily add a ©, ™, ® or similar symbols, just pressing some weird ALT-GR + G / H / J, key combinations. In my (Spanish) keyboard mapping, these combinations are empty, as they don't produce any char at all, which, on the other hand, is perfectly normal and desirable. So, I thought: Why couldn't I add some extra key mappings on top of my currently empty ALT-GR + G/J/H Keys in my Spanish keyboard, and thus, being able to quickly type these special symbols? So that's my question: Is there any utility/method to achieve that effect under windows? (My version is XP). I've even googled this for some time but no luck. I've been a long term Hot...
Post a Comment
Read more

virtualization - How to select paravirtualization interface in VirtualBox?

Given a windows 8 host system (Intel Core i5) and a Linux Fedora host, I would like to determine the optimal setting for the paravirtual interface. Options are none Default Legacy minimal Hyper-V KVM This page suggest the selection is only based on the guest system: The biggest change in VirtualBox 5.0 is the introduction of paravirtualization support, bringing higher performance and time-keeping accuracy to supported guest operating systems (Hyper-V on Windows and KVM on Linux). Is that correct? Answer The VirtualBox Manual , in the section titled Paravirtualization providers explains very clearly when each should be used (emphasis added): Minimal: Announces the presence of a virtualized environment. Additionally, reports the TSC and APIC frequency to the guest operating system. This provider is mandatory for running any Mac OS X guests. KVM: Presents a Linux KVM hypervisor interface which is recognized by Linux kernels starting with version 2.6.25. VirtualBox's implementati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Desktop reboots itself on sleep or hibernate

I have been using an ASUS M2NPV-VM motherboard for main home desktop workstation, operating Windows Vista x64. This computer has right from day one not been able to enter hibernate or standby; after Windows performs its final actions and brings the machine down, it would automatically revive itself for a reboot. Updating to the second latest BIOS (1201)has not helped (the latest BIOS revision would induce video refresh problems rendering it unusable). I have been reading related discussions on incidents similar to mine to no avail of a true workable solution. They appear to be more speculative guesses rather than actual knowledge on the inner workings of motherboard hardware. Does anybody have any electronic engineering experience on PC energy-saving standards to provide a more informed opinion how to go about getting this to work? More stories: this motherboard could not even reboot properly the first thing i used it. It was due to refresh rate of the onboard GPU, which had no influe...
Post a Comment
Read more

security - How is Linux not prone to viruses, malware and those kinds of things?

How is Linux protected against viruses? This question was a Super User Question of the Week . Read the blog entry for more details or contribute to the blog yourself Answer Well, it factually is not... it's just less subject to hackers developing viruses that target Linux systems. Consumer grade computers usually run on Windows and thus, when targeting a wide audience, Windows is the way to go. Don't misunderstand Linux and viruses, there definitely ARE Linux viruses. Some distros have additional protection layers such as SELinux (See here ) in Ubuntu for example. Then there's the default firewall and the fact that alien files don't automatically have permission to be executed. Specific execution permission has to be granted before execution is possible. (See here ) Then there are several other factors that make Linux a hard place to be for viruses usually non-root users on linux systems have no to little executable files at their disposal that would allow for virus...
Post a Comment
Read more