Usually, when I use google I look for english content, even though I live in a spanish-speaking country. It really bugs me when I go to google.com and get redirected to the local version. It bothers me not only because I'm looking for english content, but because Google localizes search results yielding a lot of unrelated or not so relevant stuff.
I do exactly the same. My reason is simple, most of the information that I use on a daily basis is simply not available in my native language. So why bother with it at all, simply search in English, 99% chance to score in one or two searches. If those really don't work the chances of finding it in my native language are practically nil.
The only exceptions for this are local news and information about hardware that has been customized on a per country basis (HP does a lot of this).
Now, for both you and Nico... ask yourself whether you (as a 'Hacker') are representative for 'most internet users in your country'. I think a website should be easiest in use for the biggest group of users.
As for me: I can get annoyed by behaviour like this but I'll always remind myself I'm not a 'regular internet user'.
As for most people I know: A lot have a dutch localization for windows and a dutch localization for Firefox/Chrome/IE. Quite a few (about 30%) have an english localization for their browsers (either because they have an english localization for windows or because they like 'consistent menus across all applications'.
I do agree with the author that geolocation should not be the first choice (cookies should be) but as a second choice it's better than the 'Accept-Language' header.
You are right, I'm probably not representative of most internet users in my country, but my OS and browser are in English, so it would be easy for Google to pick that up (or my cookies) and act accordingly, instead of redirecting me to the local version.
I don't think that works. Lots of people use a pirated OS. In Asia 99% of the people are using a pirated Windows, sometimes in English.
One of the software I've developed in the past auto-selects the user interface language based on Windows's own language. There had been at least one incident in which a customer complained about this; he was Filipino but was using a pirated Arabian Windows XP.
I'm all in for empowering the user too, but then again, it's all about the defaults.
In my experience power users find features like the 'change language button' a lot faster and easier than the average user. Even the tiny flags in the top-right corner of most websites go unnoticed for most people.
A 'regular internet user' doesn't even bother with the settings and/or is probably unaware of localization of search results. This doesn't mean she wouldn't get better results by searching without localization (assuming she's an english speaker).
What's worst is google for some reason changes back the settings to localized at what appear to be random intervals. The only definite working solution I've found is to use a US IP address to proxy from.
Thanks, whenever I get redirected to a local version of Google, I use that link, it's placed at the bottom right of localized Google home as "Google.com in English".
