> My theory has always been that in any given country, there are far more native speakers with misconfigured computing environments than there are visitors and nomadic folks like me. So it’s merely a numbers game: I may be frustrated, but at least Google and other companies aren’t losing business when folks with misconfigured computers close the tab because they got a page served to them in, say, English instead of their native language.
If you're right and they're following a numbers-game, Google's reasoning could only make the tiniest bit of sense if they were a disruptive minor player facing stiff competition. As it stands though, however frustrated a native speaker with a misconfigured browser may become, they're not going to flock to an alternative service. Plus, I would argue that a user that is not technically competent enough to change their own browser's language preference is the user least likely to even know where to look for alternatives to Google's services.
This is all the worst considering that a user whose browser is configured for the wrong language only needs to change their settings once. However, a user who happens to physically be in the wrong place for their language does not have the luxury of fixing the problem, short of using a VPN or travelling to a location that Google has decided speaks their language.
If you're right and they're following a numbers-game, Google's reasoning could only make the tiniest bit of sense if they were a disruptive minor player facing stiff competition. As it stands though, however frustrated a native speaker with a misconfigured browser may become, they're not going to flock to an alternative service. Plus, I would argue that a user that is not technically competent enough to change their own browser's language preference is the user least likely to even know where to look for alternatives to Google's services.
This is all the worst considering that a user whose browser is configured for the wrong language only needs to change their settings once. However, a user who happens to physically be in the wrong place for their language does not have the luxury of fixing the problem, short of using a VPN or travelling to a location that Google has decided speaks their language.