Ads
Tom's Guide > Forum > Applications > Internet Applications > Who's in charge here?

Who's in charge here?

Forum Applications : Internet Applications Who's in charge here?

Word :    Username :           
 
- 0 +

I'm running Firefox. It has sold me out to Google! Google has taken over control of my computer. I enter www.google.com and I get google.ca. No matter which way I try, I can't get google.com, only dot ca. And they aren't the same. Even if they were, how do they do this? It's not what I want. For example, the dot com site has a shopping feature on it, the Canadian dot ca doesn't.
When I installed Firefox, it didn't ask me if I was a Canadian & it didn't ask me where I live (I live in Canada). How did Google do this to me & how do I purge this outrageous invasion?

Reply to kaal
Register or log in to remove.
- 0 +

Sounds like a virus is in charge. Have you done a thorough virus/malware scan?

Reply to Ijack
- 0 +

Quote :

Sounds like a virus is in charge. Have you done a thorough virus/malware scan?

Everything is scrubbed clean.

I type in http://goggle.com into the address bar & hit enter & ... .ca pops up.

Reply to kaal
- 0 +

its just a redirect google does, even toms hardware used to do this, i used to type in .com and it would redirect me to .co.uk, theve changed it recently so when i put in .com it asks me where im from.

for the shopping feature try www.froogle.com which should direct you to the shop feature search in google.

Reply to Flakes
- 0 +

Flakes wrote :

its just a redirect google does, ...

How did they do it? How do they know who I am? Did they get this information from my ISP? How do I get control of my computer back? When I type google.com, I expect to get .com, not .ca!

Flakes wrote :

for the shopping feature try www.froogle.com which should direct you to the shop feature search in google.

Thanks for the tip.

Reply to kaal

Probably based on your IP address. Because if you have all the records and all you can tell what company someone gets their internet through via their IP address. So if google looks at the first part of that address and see it's a canadian company, that's probably why it kicks you over there automatically.

Reply to ohiou_grad_06
- 0 +

Type, or bookmark, www.google.com/ncr. That will take you straight to the .com site.

Reply to Ijack
- 0 +

ohiou_grad_06 wrote :

Probably based on your IP address. Because if you have all the records and all you can tell what company someone gets their internet through via their IP address. So if google looks at the first part of that address and see it's a canadian company, that's probably why it kicks you over there automatically.

You got that right, thanks. Here's what my ISP had to say when I asked them about not disclosing my address: "There is no way to do this, simply because going to Google’s site from any given country will result in Google redirecting the user to the Google site for that specific country. This is done on a lookup of what country the IP address you are accessing the internet from is associated to.

For this to change you would need to move abroad (which probably is not a feasible option :) ), or use a proxy. While we cannot help you with a proxy, we can give you a link to explain what it is - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proxy_server."


Reply to kaal
- 0 +

Ijack wrote :

Type, or bookmark, www.google.com/ncr. That will take you straight to the .com site.

Elegant, thanks!

Reply to kaal
TomsGuide.com: Over 800,000 questions and answers to address all your high-tech questions. Sign up now! Its free!
Tom's Guide > Forum > Applications > Internet Applications > Who's in charge here?
Go to:

There are 47 identified and unidentified users. To see the list of identified users, Click here.

Please mind

You are about to answer a thread that has been inactive for more than 6 months.
If you still wish to proceed, please ensure that your posting is original and does not duplicate or overlap any prior responses to this thread.

Add a reply Cancel
Tom's Guide around the World