Web pages now appear in Spanish

[olive]

Maybe it is because I have downloaded a shedful of WinXP updates but now pages often appear in Spanish even when I start off in English. I suppose it will help my Spanish but I find it very irritating. Is there a way of turning it off? I browse in IE7 having updated recently from 6.

Examples include Hotmail logon screen and Adobe - I have been trying to get the latest version of Flash Player. I guess it is a way of balancing web traffic around the globe

olive

[Enrique]

Hi olive,
Your location gives it away...Granada Spain
Trouble is the programs are too cleaver these days and they work out from your IP address where you are and so you start getting all the adds and things in Spanish.
If you use Firefox browser and use the add-ons...add blocker etc.. you could get less.
No doubt Beach or McT will know of a way to keep it "English"

[murbisa]

I find it most annoying. I set up my computer in the UK and the itunes music store is in English. I set up my OH's over here and it has come up in spanish. I use Google UK to search and get more pages in English that way.

[Beachcomber]

There should be an option on the various web sites to override the automatic language selection by location.

[Enrique]

Hi,
I knew Beach would know
On the Adobe front page at the top click on the "United States (change), guess yours comes up Spanish (change) and select the language you want.

[wildside]

Hi all,

If you use Firefox browser...

Tools >>>>Options>>>>Content.....At the bottom of the content tab you will see an area to choose languages for web pages in general...

This gets over ridden by some sites like Paypal that use your IP address (where you connect to the internet from)as your location.... It's funny, I have a satellite connection and the hub is in Germany so I have a German IP address... I get Paypal log in screen in German but once O log in it switches to English.... Google home page does the same until I tell it to treat me as from UK or Spain

[Enrique]

Hi wildside,
Any Firefox tips welcome... Firefox newbie and liking it
So vildside ze var for you is over ja !

[McT]

Unfortunately, you and I and every other computer user are far too stupid to know what we really want. Luckily, programmers always know exactly what we want and that's what they give us. So if you have a Spanish IP address, you'll get Spanish content. (Sometimes.)

Having worked with computers for 30 years, mostly fixing software bugs, I have developed a deep loathing for computer programmers!

No doubt Beach or McT will know of a way to keep it "English")

As wildside said, Firefox has a "preferred language" setting and so does Internet Explorer, but web site programmers often ignore the setting or override it. As Beach and Enrique mentioned, you can choose options like language on some web sites, that are then stored in a cookie on your computer, so that the next time you visit the page, it will appear the same.

Just remember though, programmers (especially Microsoft programmers) know best!

McT

[McT]

We need a new attribute for postings:

[rant] and [/rant]

McT