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up vote 8 down vote favorite

For reasons I can't fathom, my Google searches keep ending up at http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=chr. What language is 'chr' (I don't why I can't find this by searching Google, but I can't)? More importantly, how do I stop it?

(Note: going to 'settings' and setting my language to 'English' was not effective.)

Edit: It's a bug in Firefox.

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What happens if you delete the webhp?hl=chr part? – Alex Aug 1 '10 at 17:02
1  
That's a beautiful looking language... – defrex Aug 1 '10 at 19:00

3 Answers

up vote 10 down vote accepted

Whoa, those are crazy letters! I think Alex is right about the Cherokee language.

Use google.com/ncr to force the English interface. ("ncr" means "No Country/Culture Redirect.")

If you want to force your browser's homepage to show Google in English, you will have to set your homepage to google.com/ncr in your browser's settings.

Edit: Google probably determines which default UI language to show based on your IP address. Your IP address probably geo-locates to a place where Cherokee is used by most of the people. For example, I am located in Korea, and I always get the Korean version of Google. However, if I set the Google settings to use the English UI, it uses English for that computer/browser. This requires browser cookies; do you have cookies enabled?

Also, if your browser explicitly sets your homepage to http://www.google.com/webhp?hl=chr then Google will dutifully display Cherokee.

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The redirect fix is unsatisfactory. Why does it keep redirecting me there? I've changed Google's settings to english. Changing the browser to use google.com/ncr (it just uses Google) is a nasty nasty fix for the problem. – Paul Biggar Aug 2 '10 at 21:54
I'm sorry, but there is no place where Cherokee is used by most of the people. The geo-location theory must be incorrect. – nohat Sep 30 '10 at 20:27
Browsers usually have a list of preferred languages. Google considers both that and the IP geolocation, or at least it did use each of them at various points in history. – configurator Sep 30 '10 at 20:40
up vote 12 down vote

I had this too, and discovered this in my Firefox language settings:

alt text

Firefox must be seeing "chrome" and reading "chr" = cherokee. Removing that line fixed the problem.

I've recently turned on Firefox sync, Xmarks (installed in both Firefox and Chrome) and Chrome sync, so I suspect one of them has done this by mistake. Funny!

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I use firefox sync, so that might be the culprit. – Paul Biggar Sep 30 '10 at 20:43
Yes, I think you must be right - Firefox sync is trying to sync the language preferences. But where is it getting 'chrome...properties' from? – tim_hutton Sep 30 '10 at 21:28
Yes Tim! The Chrome thing was the problem. I guess the problem was using Xmarks with all browsers together at first, then switching to FireFox Sync. The FireFox Sync add-on saves and misinterprets the Google Chrome settings leading to this funny problem. Another question: did you all use Windows or Linux based platforms? I got this problem just with Ubuntu. Cheers Frank – Frank Abel Oct 13 '10 at 5:42
Well, chrome is the name for files and resources within firefox, but I don't know how it got like that. – Paul Biggar Oct 13 '10 at 14:49
1  
See bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=580833 for the bug report. – Paul Biggar Oct 13 '10 at 14:50
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up vote 5 down vote

It's the Cherokee language & alphabet: http://www.native-languages.org/cherokee_alphabet.htm

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