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    [Solved]Default search engine displays all the results in Chinese (Taiwan)

    Opera for Linux
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    • A Former User
      A Former User last edited by
      Version:		43.0.2442.1144 - Opera is up to date
      Update stream:	Stable
      System:			Ubuntu 16.04.2 LTS (x86_64; Unity)
      

      I am having rather an odd problem with respect to my default search engine (Google Search) used by the Opera
      browser: all the results are displayed in Chinese (Taiwan).

      I've tried to change the specs at
      Edit > Preferences... > Browser > Search > Manage search engines..., but I cannot even see the URL where the search engines are redirecting. The list of the search engines to choose from goes as follows:

      • Google Search
      • Yahoo!
      • DuckDuckGo
      • Amazon
      • Bing
      • 维基百科

      The first one takes me to https://www.google.com.tw/, while the last one redirects to https://zh.wikipedia.org/. As it is obvious, these websites are in Chinese. The problem is, however, that I cannot speak Chinese.

      What's even worse, one cannot modify the URL's at *Manage search engines.. And the problem is not merely a cosmetic one, but I cannot access some websites at all in any other language than Chinese. For example, if I try to access https://www.spotify.com/, I am automatically redirected to https://www.spotify.com/tw/. The same goes with Google Search.

      So the question is, how can I modify my default search engine in Opera? Why isn't it possible to modify the URL's of the pre-defined search engines?

      Thanks a lot for your help! 🙂

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      • sgunhouse
        sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

        It used to be that you could edit the file "Local State" to fix this, though I had a user report that it didn't work for him ... still, as that's the only suggestion I have that's what I'll give you. (Yes, I do know where the default search engines are stored, but you can't edit default_partner_content.json so don't bother.)

        Browse to your profile directory (About Opera will tell you where it is, but it is typically something like C:\Users\{your username}\AppData\Roaming\Opera Software\Opera Stable) and open "Local State" with your favorite text editor. Somewhere in that file you'll find a section named "location" (with the quotes), for example mine reads

        "location":{"country":"us","country_from_server":"US","timestamp":"1500947363600000000","tries":1},
        

        (that file was a lot easier to read before that removed all the formatting characters, in Notepad it displays on 3 extremely long lines)

        If you want it to say you're from the US, you can just use the above data.

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        • sgunhouse
          sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

          Sorry, didn't notice this was posted in the Linux section. Your profile is of course in your home folder and you won't be using Notepad, but otherwise it should be the same.

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          • avl
            avl Opera last edited by

            Also, to make it easier to read the file, just run python -m json.tool < file 🙂

            You can edit and save it in read-friendly format, Opera will remove the formatting again once it starts but it'll read any valid json file.

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            • A Former User
              A Former User last edited by

              Sorry, didn't notice this was posted in the Linux section. Your profile is of course in your home folder and you won't be using Notepad, but otherwise it should be the same.

              @sgunhouse Excuse me, I'm a newcomer in Linux. From my home folder, I can't find such a thing. The Computer section with all of bin, boot, cdrom, dev ... to me appears so confusing.

              Can you tell, where do I exactly locate this file in question? 😮

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              • sgunhouse
                sgunhouse Moderator Volunteer last edited by

                See About Opera for the location - I'm currently in Windows and thus can't check, but it is something like ~/.config/opera-config/ or similar. (And note, files or folders beginning with a "." are hidden in Linux. Whatever About Opera says is correct, whether you can see the folder or not - type it into the location bar or change your file browser to show hidden files.)

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                • A Former User
                  A Former User last edited by

                  @sgunhouse Hi there! You were right, I had to change my file browser to show hidden files (Files > Home > View > Show Hidden Files). I manage to localize the file in question from the following path:

                  /home/xxxxxs/.config/opera/Local State
                  

                  I just changed the country code from TW to FI, and everything seems to be working fine now!

                  Thanks!

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