When I try to load google.com in my browser (Firefox), Google redirects me to its local version of Google Search for my country:
Notice how, even though the URL is google.com, the page is effectively the one from google.hr (Google's Croatian search page). I don't mind the localized UI, the problem is the search results page which doesn't provide the functionality that I'm used to in the English version of Google Search. For example, define: searches:
In the screen shot above, the English version of Google Search is on the left, and my local version on the right. Notice the definition box which is displayed only in the English version. I was able to get the English version by adding ?hl=en to the URL. This is similar to the ncr suffix which FYI appears to have stopped working.
So, while I can get the English version by using the URL google.com/?hl=en, I would like to get it by default for all my searches (including Firefox's search field, for instance).
I've also checked my Google account settings. My language is set to English and no other language is defined:
Special thanks to Google for wasting my time.
