Today while searching for something in Google through the Firefox search bar, I was presented with the results. What was surprising was that Google had automatically switched to Hindi. It never bothered to ask me if I preferred to use Hindi.

Hindi is the official language of India. But the fact is only 35-40% of people in India speak/read Hindi. That being the case, I feel that Google should ask the user his/her preference before switching languages. The reality is that even if a person knows Hindi or any other regional language, he may prefer to continue to use English (I am one such person).

Fortunately, I know Hindi and so was able to get into Preferences and change my choice to English. I wonder, how a person who cannot read Hindi, would have felt if presented with such a result.

My suggestion is that Google should continue to use only English by default and change language only if the user chooses to do so. At the most, Google could display an info box asking the user whether he wants the results to be displayed in a regional language.