Us Sites Driving Me Nuts

[rsvp]

For some reason I seem to be plagued by everything American - every site I'm directed to is US even if I use Mojeek search engine which I understood was UK only.
Have been using Mozilla firefox and Mojeek.
This is a failrly recent thing and the only change I've made is to delete my entire browsing history.
Help! in very simple terms please.

[Buenchico]

Check that your internet traffic isn't going via a proxy server.

Click on the Hamburger symbol (3 horizontal lines, top right) and then on
Options > Advanced > Settings. If 'No proxy' hasn't got a dot next to it, click to put one there, then click on 'OK'.

[rsvp]

Lovely Benchico thank you once again - will try that. Couldn't get back earlier as demented Border Collie decided it was time for 'An Extensive Garden Reconnoitre' - four times!

[rsvp]

LB (lovely Buenchico) followed your instructions and when I got to settings there was no option to do the proxy thing so I continued to networks which gave me the option, clicked it and okay. Haven't checked it but did I do good?

[rsvp]

LB have tried out the new set up i.e. Mozilla firefox and Mojeek and the changes I made above under your direction and my assumption - only accessed a few queries and so far have got onto uk sites. Great relief.
At the moment things appear to be better, blood pressure is down and alcoholic intake less. As usual, you are my hero - thank you

[rsvp]

Sigh.....still getting US sites - going to bed, am really dischuffed with the internet.

[Buenchico]

I'm pleased that it seems to be working.

Incidentally, search engines struggle to know which sites are genuinely in the UK and which aren't.

For example, many Chinese firms register .co.uk addresses (as they're fully entitled to do) to make it look as if you're dealing with a UK trader. Conversely, The Answerbank (which is obviously UK-based) is actually hosted on servers in the USA!

[rsvp]

Apros my last posts and the fact that Mojeek didn't filter US sites ....what do I do?

[Buenchico]

Firstly, I assume that you're actually using the UK option (from the arrowhead thingy at the right of the search box), rather than just clicking on the magnifying glass (or hitting 'Enter').

If you are then there might not be anything that you can do about it as many international websites are deliberately designed to shout "Yes, we're located in the UK . . . and France . . . and Germany . . . and Australia . . . and India . . . etc, etc" to search engines, in the hope that they'll get at least a small amount of extra trade for their websites. (Further, the firms that companies employ to push their websites up search rankings often get paid by the number of hits that their clients' sites receive; they couldn't care less that you're clicking through to a completely useless site as long as they get paid for you doing so!).

So you'll never get solely UK results from any search engine. Indeed, because of the tricks I've outlined above, the ability of search engines to restrict results to a single country seems to be getting worse and worse.

Sorry!

[rsvp]

May I come back to this - am sooo tired

[rsvp]

Thanks for the reply and today it does seem better - the explanation was really helpful. Stay well