December 28, 2025
Translate and aggravate
Tell HN: Google ignores English searches and forces localized results
English searches auto-translated; travelers rage, VPN hacks and eye-rolls
TLDR: Google is auto-localizing and translating English searches, with AI replies stuck in Portuguese for some users. The community is split between swearing it’s broken and suggesting hacks like “?hl=en” or a VPN, but everyone agrees it makes technical searching—and travel—way harder.
Google’s latest quirk has the Hacker News crowd in full meltdown mode: people typing searches in English are getting local-language results anyway—plus auto-translated Reddit threads and an “AI mode” that replies in Portuguese even if you beg it in English. The “All web” toggle? About as useful as a chocolate teapot. One commenter says this isn’t new: Google’s been using GeoIP—location detected from your internet address—for ages, and country domains like google.co.uk might behave better. But that made the thread even spicier.
Fix-it folks are tossing hacks like adding “?hl=en” (set language to English), while frustrated travelers roll their eyes: “It’s a pain in the ass when you travel a lot…” Another user confesses their “mediocre” workaround—flip on a VPN and pretend you’re in the UK or another English-speaking country. Meanwhile, the rage crowd dropped some colorful language to describe how broken this feels. The drama splits the room: is this just Google being “normal” and location-obsessed, or a broken update that ignores user choices? The meme-y takeaway: Google’s AI says “bom dia” to your English homework, and the community is screaming “let me choose!”
Key Points
- •A user with all settings in English reports Google Search returns localized results in their native language.
- •English queries prioritize pages in Portuguese over equivalent English sources.
- •Results linking to Reddit are often auto-translated instead of directing to original English content.
- •Google’s ‘AI mode’ outputs responses in Portuguese even when prompts are in English and lacks a visible language override.
- •Selecting the UI option ‘All web’ does not reliably return English results or disable automatic translation; location/account preferences seem to override query language.