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Safari Google search giving Japanese results

For some reason, starting yesterday, any Google search I perform in Safari (using the search bar to the right of the URL bar) is bringing about Japanese results. I do live in Japan, but before yesterday got all of my search results in English. I'm not sure what has happened, and can't find any settings in Safari preferences to ensure I get my search results in English.

Does anyone know what is going on? Help very much appreciated.

macBook, Mac OS X (10.6.2)

Posted on Mar 2, 2010 6:07 PM

Reply
9 replies

Mar 2, 2010 6:15 PM in response to Fraser Gould

HI,

Try clearing your Google history...

1. Go to the Safari Menu
2. Select Preferences
3. Select Autofill tab
4. Select the Edit button from the Other Forms Line
5. From the AutoFill list of sites select Google.com
6. Select Remove
7. Select Done

Relaunch Safari.

If that doesn't help...



From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari / Empty Cache. When you are done with that...

From the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari / Reset Safari. Select the top 5 buttons and click Reset.

Since you are running Snow Leopard, *make sure Safari is opening in 32-bit mode, not 64.* Right or control click the Safari icon in the Applications folder, then click: Get Info In the Get Info window click the black disclosure triangle next to General so it faces down. Select 32 bit mode. Also, (in that same window) *make sure Safari is NOT running in Rosetta.*



Web pages now include a small icon or 'favicon' which is visible in the address bar and next to bookmarks. These icons take up disk space and slow Safari down. It is possible to erase the icons from your computer and start fresh. *To delete Safari's icon cache using the Finder, open your user folder, navigate to ~/Library/Safari/ and move this file "webpageIcons.db to the Trash.*






Carolyn 🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Mar 2, 2010 7:05 PM in response to Carolyn Samit

Carolyn,

Thank you for those wonderfully detailed instructions. Unfortunately, I did everything you mentioned and my Google searches are still returning Japanese results. Actually, the sites that come up as a result of the search are English sites, but all of the Google options (for example, Images, News, Maps at the top of the page) are listed in Japanese. Very odd - I don't know what happened here. Perhaps it has something to do with Google itself? I notice that in the top right-hand corner of the screen there is an option to log into a Google account (also in Japanese), but I don't think I have ever created a Google account.

Mar 2, 2010 7:16 PM in response to Fraser Gould

HI,

See if you have a Safari plugin or input manager that's causing this.

Go here for trouble shooting 3rd party plugins or input managers which might be causing the problem.

Safari: Add-ons may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or have performance issues

If that isn't the issue..

Go to ~Library/Safari and move the *History.plist and LastSession.plist* files to the Trash. Relaunch Safari. If that didnt' help...

Go to the Safari Menu Bar, click Safari/Preferences. Make note of all the preferences under each tab. Quit Safari. Now go to ~/Library/Preferences and move this file com.apple.safari.plist to the Desktop. Relaunch Safari. If it's a successful launch, then that .plist file needs to be moved to the Trash.

--- Interestingly enough, similar issue was just posted here.
http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=2355299

I just found this link.. might help.

http://www.google.com/googlenotebook/faq.html





🙂

Message was edited by: Carolyn Samit

Mar 2, 2010 8:03 PM in response to Fraser Gould

Apologies in advance ... this is going to be the strangest serious post I've ever made at Apple Discussions. Please bear with the instructions I'm being forced to give you.

Actually, the sites that come up as a result of the search are English sites, but all of the Google options (for example, Images, News, Maps at the top of the page) are listed in Japanese


I think I've got some idea of what's going on here. Preferences can be set on the Google search page in order to make your Google display like that.

Up in the top right corner, do you see two links? If so, click the leftmost of the two links.

In the drop down menu, at the top of the screen, try scrolling up until you can see a non-japanese language setting. The most useful one I can see there (and I'm not joking) is "Elmer Fudd".

After you've selected "Elmer Fudd" click the button up at the Top right of the page. (It's actually a "save preferences" button.)

That should take you to a search page written in ... Elmer Fudd ... and up at the top right click the "Seawch settings" link.

Now in the "Intewface Wanguage" drop down menu, select "Engwish" and click the "Save Pwefewences" button.

... you should be back seeing things in English now.

(And if anyone had told me at the beginning of the day that I was destined to make this particular seriously-meant post, I think I might have shot myself.)

Mar 2, 2010 11:17 PM in response to den.thed

Help!!!

My Mac Mini is doing the same, but in my case it's suddenly decided to return my searches, using google.ae, in Arabic.

OK I'm in the UAE, but I've not changed any settings since last night when it returned them in google.com & in English.

My language preferences are all set to English & I tried to follow the 'Elmer Fudd' instructions, but couldn't as they didn't seem to relate to how the screen is set up in Arabic.

A similar thing happened to me last year when I used a PC, I could find no way round it hen & just had to switch to another browser. I don't want to do that as I like Safari. Seems to me that this is something that Apple should look into for us.....

Anyone with any ideas to help????

Thanks in advance, Kev

Mar 2, 2010 11:54 PM in response to kaswest

My language preferences are all set to English & I tried to follow the 'Elmer Fudd' instructions, but couldn't as they didn't seem to relate to how the screen is set up in Arabic.


Arrgh. Indeed, I can't make head or tail of the links on that Arabic Google page.

Okay, let's try taking you on a trip to New Zealand.

Go to the following location.

http://www.google.co.nz/

*Even though the page is mostly in Arabic,* below the Google search rectangle thing, you should see two links ... one saying "English", one saying "Maori". Click the English one (unless you know Maori).

Up to the top right of the page you end up at, you should see a "Settings" link. Click on that and select "Search Settings".

Next to "Interface language", select English and click "Save preferences".

Now try another search using the Safari search field ... does it give you a mostly English page?

(And to think, this is only the second strangest post I've made today. I blame Carolyn!)

Mar 3, 2010 2:18 AM in response to b noir

i was having the same problem and just fixed it!

i did it like this:
1. search for anything in using the search bar in safari
2. after receiving your results, look for the drop-down link at the top right of the page. click it.
3. after clicking on the down arrow, click on the first of the two choices that appear. this will let you change the google search settings.
4. you'll see a number of boxes that can be checked. each one is a different language. i can't read kanji so it was all jibberish to me. i finally figured out that this one: 英語 is English.
5. find 英語 and click the box next to it.
6. if there is another box with a check mark, click it to remove the check. 英語 should be the only one checked.

i had to fiddle with these steps a bit, but this is basically what i did. good luck.

Safari Google search giving Japanese results

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