How to set Firefox Google Search in English
This tweak allows you to set Firefox Google Search in English independently from your computer language settings and your location and allows you to clear cookies in Firefox 3+.
This tutorial is valid for Windows Operating System with Firefox 3+.
It is likely that this also works on other Operating Systems and/or in older Firefox versions than 3.
To set Firefox Google Search in English you need to modify the file “google.xml“, part of the Firefox installation.
First of all, close every Firefox instance.
Open the folder "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\" by clicking Start, then Run, in the Open box type the folder path and then click OK.
Copy the already present file “google.xml” to “google1.xml” in the same directory "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\".
This is to keep a back up copy of the original Firefox installation, in case you need to revert back to it.
Open the file “google.xml” with Notepad.
It would look like this “google.xml” but the long key string for the "Image" tag is different for every Firefox installation.
Add this statement “<Param name="hl" value="en"/>” to the “Param” list.
The file modified will look like this “google.xml“.
Save the file “google.xml” in the folder "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\" and close it.
Restart Firefox and see the results.
Wed 14 Oct 2009 @ 14:46
Hey,
That does not work for me.
Any other way to do it?
Thu 15 Oct 2009 @ 00:14
Hi Jeppe,
There are few cases when the above tweak doesn’t work.
In these cases, the file google.xml has to be re-written from scratches.
I found that the below tweak always works.
Right-click on this link http://www.zialingua.com/rtfm/google.txt, then click on “Save Link As”, then save it to the folder “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\”.
Close all Firefox windows.
Move the original google.xml file in “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\” to another folder.
From the original google.xml, copy the Image tag content and paste it into the newly downloaded google.txt file in the place of the “…long key string for the Image tag different for every Firefox installation…” string.
Save the google.txt file into “C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\searchplugins\”.
Rename it as google.xml.
Restart Firefox and try the Google search.