Firefox and Google default domain

tomk · 07-04-2005 11:21am #1

I have Debian and Arch Linux dual-booting on my laptop, with Firefox 1.0.2 on each distro. When I use the Google search in the toolbar under Debian, I get results from google.ie. The same thing under Arch gives me results from google.co.uk.

Is this a Firefox setting? Or is it a system setting? In either case, where would I find it?

Snowbat · 07-04-2005 5:50pm

They're Firefox search engine plugins - an icon and src file for each service. You'll find them in your /searchplugins directory.

For these and more, see "Our current search top 10" here: http://mycroft.mozdev.org/download.html

rsynnott · 08-04-2005 4:56pm

Yep, most likely one computer thinks it's in Ireland, the other thinks it's in the UK. This is determined by environment variables "LC_<stuff>". Have alook at those.

aidan_walsh · 08-04-2005 7:19pm

rsynnott wrote:

Yep, most likely one computer thinks it's in Ireland, the other thinks it's in the UK. This is determined by environment variables "LC_<stuff>". Have alook at those.

I don't think Firefox works like that, I'm pretty sure it depends on the installer package that you choose. I usually get it from the front page (us), and all searches are sent through Google.com.

rsynnott · 08-04-2005 9:23pm

doodle_sketch wrote:

I don't think Firefox works like that, I'm pretty sure it depends on the installer package that you choose. I usually get it from the front page (us), and all searches are sent through Google.com.

Really? Mine's from the front page, and goes through Google.ie. I doubt they bother doing a different package for every Google region (there's over a hundred now, I think). Far more likely they use the environment variables (either the proper ones or Gnome's, which may differ).

aidan_walsh · 08-04-2005 9:29pm

Hmm... Perhaps they do it via the language settings... But then the uk version would go through UK Google, wouldn't it? Perhaps they are starting to do both? Package all their Google plugins and install one based on the computers language and/or region settings? Its probably how I would handle it, after all they'd only add a couple of hundred extra KB to the installer when compressed...

niallb · 13-04-2005 11:53am

Do you use UTV as your ISP?

I think google use some form of GeoIP to map your
IP address to a country and offer you their local version.

If you use a proxy for Arch and not for Debian,
you might see this happen.

UTV have most of their user IPs for the Republic mapped as being in Ireland, but perhaps one of their proxies is registered as being in the UK?

Take a look at the proxy settings and see if there's any difference.
It's an interesting find.

NiallB

tomk · 13-04-2005 11:59pm

niallb wrote:

Do you use UTV as your ISP?

Indeed I do.

niallb wrote:

If you use a proxy for Arch and not for Debian,
you might see this happen.

The network settings for both distros are identical. The laptop is behind a router/firewall/internal proxy, and does not have a public IP address. If UTV are using transparent proxies somewhere along the line, I would expect that to affect both distros in the same way.

niallb wrote:

Take a look at the proxy settings and see if there's any difference.

The Firefox proxy settings are identical in both cases - no proxy specified.

Currently, I believe this is to do with locale configuration. Debian is fairly exhaustive with locale options, whereas Arch doesn't seem to bother too much in that area. I'll stick this up on the Arch forum, and see what comes back.

tomk · 14-04-2005 9:11am

The suggestion from the Arch forum was to install the Google Ireland search plugin from here, and that certainly worked. I'm still curious, though, to know why it works in Debian without the country-specific plugin.

As always, there's never just one way to do anything with Linux.......

Snowbat · 15-04-2005 4:45am

But you do have the country-specific plugin in Debian - examine the contents of the google src file in your Firefox searchplugins directory if you don't believe me.

The question is what caused the Google Ireland plugin to be installed there.

tomk · 16-04-2005 12:07am

Not so Snowbat - check this out.

Arch - searchplugins directory:

-rw-r--r--   1 root root  960 2005-04-14 09:30 GoogleIE.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.6K 2005-04-14 09:48 GoogleIE.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  680 2004-09-05 07:59 amazondotcom.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  710 2004-10-07 23:51 amazondotcom.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  356 2004-11-02 23:36 creativecommons.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  939 2004-11-02 23:36 creativecommons.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  557 2004-09-05 07:59 dictionary.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  664 2004-09-05 07:59 dictionary.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  210 2004-10-08 08:44 eBay.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2004-08-26 05:41 eBay.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2004-07-20 19:56 google.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  659 2004-08-29 08:29 google.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   88 2004-10-08 08:44 yahoo.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2004-11-02 23:55 yahoo.src

Note the presence of both google.src and GoogleIE.src - can you guess which one I've just installed?

This is what they look like:

Arch - google.src

# Mozilla/Google plug-in by amitp+mozilla@google.com

<search 
   name="Google"
   description="Google Search"
   method="GET"
   action="http://www.google.com/search"
   update="http://www.google.com/mozilla/google.src"
   updateCheckDays=1   
   queryEncoding="utf-8"
   queryCharset="utf-8"
>

<input name="q" user>
<inputnext name="start" factor="10">
<inputprev name="start" factor="10">
<input name="ie" value="utf-8">
<input name="oe" value="utf-8">

<interpret 
    browserResultType="result" 
    charset = "UTF-8"
    resultListStart="<!--a-->" 
    resultListEnd="<!--z-->" 
    resultItemStart="<!--m-->" 
    resultItemEnd="<!--n-->"
>
</search>

Arch - GoogleIE.src

&#239;&#187;&#191;# Mycroft Search Plugin for Mozilla, Firebird, Netscape 6+, Beonix browsers 
# Mycroft Homepage: http://mycroft.mozdev.org
#
# SearchSite: Google Ireland  (www.google.ie)
# Status: Working Full
#
# Author: Derekharkin at iol.ie
# Based on standard Google plugin
# Date: 17 Feb 2004
#
# Country: IE
# Language: en
# Category: General
#
# Known issues: None. 
#

<search
  version="7.1"
  name="Google Ireland"
  description="Google Ireland - Google Ireland Search plugin"
  action="http://www.google.ie/search"
  searchform="http://www.google.ie"
  method="GET"
>

<input name="q" user>
<input name="num" value="20">
<input name="hl" value="en">
<input name="ie" value="ISO-8859">
<input name="btnG" value="Google+Search">
#<input name="meta" value="cr%3DcountryIE">
<input name="sourceid" value="Mozilla-search">

# Finds results
<interpret 
    browserResultType="result" 
    resultListStart="<!--a-->" 
    resultListEnd="<!--z-->" 
    resultItemStart="<!--m-->" 
    resultItemEnd="<!--n-->"
>

# Finds Previous link
<interpret 
    browserResultType="result" 
    resultListStart="<td valign=bottom nowrap>" 
    resultListEnd="d>" 
    resultItemStart="<td align=right>" 
    resultItemEnd="<t"
>
# Finds Next link
<interpret 
    browserResultType="result" 
    resultListStart="</a><td" 
    resultListEnd="</div><center>" 
    resultItemStart="nowrap>" 
    resultItemEnd="</table>"
>

</search>

<browser
 update="http://mycroft.mozdev.org/plugins/GoogleIE.src" 
 updateIcon="http://mycroft.mozdev.org/plugins/GoogleIE.gif"
 updateCheckDays="3"
>

Debian - searchplugins directory:

-rw-r--r--   1 root root  680 2004-09-05 07:59 amazondotcom.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  710 2005-04-06 06:59 amazondotcom.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  356 2004-11-02 23:36 creativecommons.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  939 2005-04-06 06:59 creativecommons.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  364 2005-04-06 07:30 debsearch.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  655 2005-04-06 06:59 debsearch.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  557 2004-09-05 07:59 dictionary.png
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  664 2005-04-06 06:59 dictionary.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  210 2004-10-08 08:44 eBay.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2005-04-06 06:59 eBay.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2004-07-20 19:56 google.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root  659 2005-04-06 06:59 google.src
-rw-r--r--   1 root root   88 2004-10-08 08:44 yahoo.gif
-rw-r--r--   1 root root 1.1K 2005-04-06 06:59 yahoo.src

Debian - google.src

# Mozilla/Google plug-in by amitp+mozilla@google.com

<search 
   name="Google"
   description="Google Search"
   method="GET"
   action="http://www.google.com/search"
   update="http://www.google.com/mozilla/google.src"
   updateCheckDays=0   
   queryEncoding="utf-8"
   queryCharset="utf-8"
>

<input name="q" user>
<inputnext name="start" factor="10">
<inputprev name="start" factor="10">
<input name="ie" value="utf-8">
<input name="oe" value="utf-8">

<interpret 
    browserResultType="result" 
    charset = "UTF-8"
    resultListStart="<!--a-->" 
    resultListEnd="<!--z-->" 
    resultItemStart="<!--m-->" 
    resultItemEnd="<!--n-->"
>
</search>

Identical to Arch's google.src above - well, except for updateCheckDays.

Firefox and Google default domain

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