roddy Posted November 9, 2004 at 09:14 AM Report Posted November 9, 2004 at 09:14 AM yesterday if I typed something into the search bar in Firefox and hit return it took me to the search results. Today it takes me to Google's Chinese homepage, with no results, just a blank search box. Why? [conspiracy]the Firefox search bar was somehow bypassing censoring filters, so they stopped us using it[/conspiracy] [reality]It's broken[/reality] Quote
liuzhou Posted November 9, 2004 at 12:29 PM Report Posted November 9, 2004 at 12:29 PM Delete your cookies! Google has the really annoying habit of reading your ISP no. and deciding which language you speak. They then store that in a cookie on your machine. But then as all us old China hands know, everyone in China speaks Chinese and the rest of the world speaks English! Quote
roddy Posted November 9, 2004 at 02:24 PM Author Report Posted November 9, 2004 at 02:24 PM No, it's not just giving me a Chinese results page. When I use the Google search built into Firefox, if just doesn't give me the results - it sends me to Googles (Chinese) homepage, ready to do a search. Roddy Quote
geek_frappa Posted November 9, 2004 at 03:15 PM Report Posted November 9, 2004 at 03:15 PM wait!! you can see google in beijing? Quote
roddy Posted November 9, 2004 at 03:18 PM Author Report Posted November 9, 2004 at 03:18 PM Yes Google has pretty much always been available - it's been blocked occasionally and you can't access the cache, but apart from that its fine - although you may notice strange things happening on certain search terms. Roddy Quote
Hann Posted January 9, 2005 at 02:33 PM Report Posted January 9, 2005 at 02:33 PM This is firefox related Why with firefox i can read chinese characters on this website but if i go to any other chinese website i just get nonesense ( insert joke here), while with IE i get everything? Quote
liuzhou Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:34 PM Report Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:34 PM you can't access the cache It's very easy to get around the block on Google's cache. The cache URL for this site is http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:v4pLZN6W42QJ:www.chinese-forums.com/+chinese+culture&hl=en%20target=_blank which is blocked. They block it by intercepting that "q=" in the search string. Copy the link and change "q" to "%71" (the hex value) like this http://66.102.7.104/search?%71=cache:v4pLZN6W42QJ:www.chinese-forums.com/+chinese+culture&hl=en%20target=_blank It should now work! Quote
liuzhou Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:40 PM Report Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:40 PM with firefox i can read chinese characters on this website but if i go to any other chinese website i just get nonesense Have you set up the language options in Firefox? TOOLS - OPTIONS - GENERAL - LANGUAGES Add the Chinese(s) of your choice. Quote
roddy Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:40 PM Author Report Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:40 PM Copy the link and change "q" to "%71" (the hex value) like this Nice I'm curious - one, how on earth did you realise that? And two, any other similar tricks? Roddy Quote
liuzhou Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:50 PM Report Posted January 9, 2005 at 03:50 PM I'm afraid I can't claim genius status yet! I read it somewhere, but I can't remember where. Quote
Hann Posted January 11, 2005 at 04:47 PM Report Posted January 11, 2005 at 04:47 PM I had already did the tools/options/general/language thing which is why I find this so puzzling. Quote
msittig Posted February 3, 2005 at 07:10 PM Report Posted February 3, 2005 at 07:10 PM In response to the original question... I've been downloading Firefox at net cafes across Shanghai, and this is always something that comes up. Like liuzhou said, Google reads your IP address and sets a cookie depending on what country you are in. But for me it has always been just as easy to unset, by clicking the "Google.com in English" link on the main Chinese page. After that, a request for Google always takes me to the main page, and the Firefox search box starts working correctly. Also, to liuzhou, maybe you read it here: http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~takoyaki/archive/200412.html#p19 It doesn't seem to work for me anymore, though. Quote
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