Ask HN: Turning off Google's “personalisation.”
- your phone gets updated to speak in a different accent
- the number system changes to one you don't recognise
- local results are prioritised above the results you want
- the play store tries to restrict the apps you can download
Localisation started off as a helpful feature, but the problem is that I can't turn it off. There is no setting within Google products to turn it off - setting your search preferences to google.com/ncr does not work. The only way out is to manually go to google.com/ncr and search from there every time.
There is a similar case to be made for the individualised personalisation Google does for search results. It initially started off as a really great tool for a few queries, but it is now an obstacle in my workflow. And I can't turn it off. Google offers me no setting that I can change and pws=0 has stopped working. Initially it didn't work with Google Instant, but now it doesn't work with Instant turned off - at least as far as I can detect.
Is there some way for me to access "vanilla" Google? Or a better alternative?
I am willing to sacrifice their attempts to read my mind for quicker and more accurate search results.