Does the redirect occur only when you try https://www.google.com/ or also when you try https://www.google.com.au/ ?

If you haven't already tried this, I would start here:

When you have a problem with one particular site, a good "first thing to try" is clearing your Firefox cache and deleting your saved cookies for the site.

(1) Clear Firefox's Cache

"3-bar" menu button (or Tools menu) > Options > Advanced

On the Network mini-tab > Cached Web Content : "Clear Now"

If you have a large hard drive, this might take a few minutes.

(2) Remove the site's cookies (save any pending work first). While viewing a page on google.it, try either:

• right-click and choose View Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"
• (Menu bar) Tools > Page Info > Security > "View Cookies"

In the dialog that opens, you can remove the google.it cookies individually. Then I would change the dialog at the top to remove your google.com cookies and then google.com.au cookies as well.

Then try https://www.google.com.au/ again and/or https://www.google.com/

Any improvement?

Thank you but no improvement. I did all you suggested - deleted cookies and cache. But when I hit "new tab" and the page comes up with a search box - if I type something to search for and hit enter - it takes me to the google italian site! Also if I use the search bar in the top part of the screen next to the URL it also takes me to google.it! What next to try?

Most likely, google thinks you are in Italy for some reason and is redirecting you to the Italian version of google. Try choosing the "change to English" option in the bottom right of the provided screenshot. If that doesn't work, try going to https://www.google.com/preferences#languages and selecting the language you want.

Could you check your Google search plugin? It look as though you have a 32-bit version of Windows 7, so it should be here:

C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser\searchplugins

If you open google.xml in a Firefox, IE, or an XML-aware text editor and scroll to the end, you should see a line like this:

<Url type="text/html" method="GET" template="https://www.google.com/search" rel="searchform">

Does yours show that address?

By the way, to get an Australia-specific search plugin that you could use as your default, you can try this site:

http://mycroftproject.com/google-search-plugins.html

How is your location reported?

• http://www.yougetsignal.com/tools/network-location/
• http://whatismyipaddress.com/

What site do you get with https://www.google.com/ncr ?

Maybe also do a malware check with several malware scanning programs on the Windows computer. Please scan with all programs because each program detects different malware. All these programs have free versions.

Make sure that you update each program to get the latest version of their databases before doing a scan.

• Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware:
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
• AdwCleaner:
  http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/download/adwcleaner/
  http://www.softpedia.com/get/Antivirus/Removal-Tools/AdwCleaner.shtml
• SuperAntispyware:
  http://www.superantispyware.com/
• Microsoft Safety Scanner:
  http://www.microsoft.com/security/scanner/en-us/default.aspx
• Windows Defender:
  http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/using-defender
• Spybot Search & Destroy:
  http://www.safer-networking.org/en/index.html
• Kasperky Free Security Scan:
  http://www.kaspersky.com/security-scan

You can also do a check for a rootkit infection with TDSSKiller.

• Anti-rootkit utility TDSSKiller:
  http://support.kaspersky.com/5350?el=88446

See also:

• "Spyware on Windows": http://kb.mozillazine.org/Popups_not_blocked
• https://support.mozilla.org/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-caused-malware

Hi all, Thanks for suggestions... 1. Language checked - English 2. Location/IP checked - NSW/Aust 3. google.xml screen shot attached 4. 2 more attachs - first one of search for "google". Second one shows selecting "google.com" and still getting the italian one! When I get more time I will work through the malware checks but I have Norton installed and thought that would be OK? Other suggestions?

In the url, gfe_rd=cr indicates that Google is redirecting to what it thinks is your preferred country. But you knew that already.

Occasionally Google messes up its geolocation for reasons we might never figure out... If you go to https://www.google.com/ncr Google will set a cookie saying you do not want the .com site redirected at all.

But to make the country redirect work the way it should, you may need help directly from the source: https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/websearch

But to bypass the redirect and use Google Australia as your default search site, please see my earlier link to the Mycroft site.