Google changing language per region & How to stick to google.com?

1. Google language changing Have you ever travelled to another country with your laptop and realized that the language on Google changes to the local language of your stay? Well, some people (obviously more at Google) think this is a good thing, but me, including maybe a bigger part of the community travelling and using Google, this is of no use or even very annoying. No solution exists to date, but I found a thread that provides a workaround (see below or click here to jump to solution for Google language changing).

2. Google.com redirects to another Google page Another thing, setup this way by Google probably for another reason (explained below), is that when you open Google.com, it will redirect you to the Google page of the country you're staying in, ie. Google.co.uk in case you're in the UK. This is probably due to Google's localization policy to make sure advertisements appear rightly for those who're in the region. The reason however I needed to have Google.com opening every time is A) I never click on ads and B) when I would like to find out what position my blog is for a certain keyword I have to look at Google.com which is used by the bigger part of people searching.

The workaround / solution There's a long thread on Google's Support Forum called 'How can I keep Google from changing my language settings' that discusses both issues. I however didn't find the 'Best Answer' there to answer the question at all, the one I liked the most is 3 posts below the 'Best' by Jimmy Deheeger. He refers to 2 Google Support documents each addressing one of the issues:

1. Google language setting (use this help document in case setting your language on www.google.com > settings > search settings would not solve the problem): Search history and settings: Search preferences aren't sticking

2. Google redirecting to another Google page (I used the 3rd 1st option provided under 'Changing your settings' - more to this below): Trouble connecting: Google.com automatically takes me to another Google site

If you want Firefox (I use version 3.6.8 - download Firefox by clicking here) to keep the direct link to google.com (http://www.google.com/ncr) simply click the drop-down arrow directly to the right from the Google icon in your search box (top right hand corner by default) and choose 'Manage Search Engines...' menu, choose Google, click 'Edit Keyword...' and add the direct link. After you clicked OK, any time you search for something using the search box of Firefox, it will look it up directly in google.com independently from where you're located (click here for more info on Firefox's Search Bar and the "Edit Keyword..." option).

EDITED: I had to delete cookies for another reason which made me be redirected to my local Google search page instead of google.com. I realized that it doesn't matter what you add to 'Keyword' in the Firefox search box as it redirects you anyway. You'll have to use the first option the above help document (#2) provides you with, namely to 'Click the Google.com link on any other domain'. Seems this puts a cookie on your computer and will keep you on the google.com page any time you search (even using the Firefox search box) until you clean your cookies again.