What does http://www.IP2Location.com/ say?

It gives my IP address (which is dynamic), says I am using IE browser, have Vista. It does not give my country, region, or city.

IIRC, however, anyone with access to an IP, at least a dynamic IP, will know the city and approximate ZIP. I haven't confirmed this recently but have in the past.

Maybe my computer is no longer giving it out? Will check further.

What does http://www.ip2location.com/ say in the section, which looks like the following?:

It gives only the IP address.

I have just Googled (painful to use that word now ) the terms "IP address" and "location" and on each site that indicates that it will determine IP address and location, only the IP address comes up.

Evidently my computer is now not giving location. I know it used to. I am quite positive on this. I use, FWIW, one of the major U.S. internet providers.

The closest I could get was at grc, Gibson Research Center, in its ShieldsUp test, which showed that I had a pool IP address and which identified my ISP. Otherwise, nothing.

Wondering if maybe some IE update? No, since the problem affects Chrome too.

But even if no location is being given out, why would Google assume that the IP is Japanese? Or occasionally French or Spanish?

There is no such thing as "giving-out a location". It is, however, entirely possible for your IP not be in a particular GeoIP database, or for the said database to have inaccurate information regarding the location of your IP.

Update: Today Google is in English. (Been so long, I am almost thinking, "What's that?")

Next, I go to the website given above and find that my location is given.

I don't know what happened. Maybe it's a confluence of the planets.

The only thing different from yesterday is that my newly downloaded virus checking program, Avast!, updated automatically this a.m. That was before I checked Google. I don't see how there could be a connection, however.

I'd been wondering all along if perhaps the problem was with Google itself, since I was getting other languages on only the main Google site and not on Google finance or news. But then, since FT ad server had ads in French for awhile, that hypothesis didn't fit. Also, since I wasn't getting location feedback yesterday when I checked the various sites that check for IP and address, something had to have changed on my computer itself--or maybe my ISP, who knows?

Anyhow, everything's all right now. Thanks, people.

Or, as we say in the Google crash language course, Merci beaucoup, gracias. ^

The ads are targeted using basically the same technology that is used by Google to try to figure out where you are, so if one goes haywire it is reasonable to assume that the other will too.

Glad that you're back to English, at least for now.

Another hypothesis might be that my ISP perhaps added some new IP addresses? That would make sense, as the IP addresses are dynamic and the ISP is large and has increasing base of customers, and per the information in post 20 from KVS, it is not the computer that gives out the location but rather a database that correlates known (i.e., not new) IPs to locations.

Google (main Google site) is back to Japanese today.

Also, a small ad for Google is appearing at the near-top of the FT screen for this thread, in Japanese, below an English-language ad for a computer notebook, and next to a small Lufthansa ad in English.

(ETA: I've just checked the overall technology forum screen. It doesn't have the Japanese-language ad on that screen but does have a small something saying "Ads by Google.")

I checked the IP/location thread per link above, and no geographical location is being listed on the site today, just the IP du jour.

Still thinking the problem is with the IP my ISP is giving me, but this is becoming eerie. I could see that my carrier might have added a small percentage of new IPs, but this is many occurrences.

I thought that if others had the same problem, I might have heard from them. I haven't.

ETA: Checked Google with another computer on my wireless connection Feb. 25, yesterday from this ETA. That Google website also appeared in Japanese. Therefore the problem would have to be with my ISP only, not with a virus on my computer, which was the worrisome element in all the above. Don't know if I should put this in a new post but thought everyone would probably be a little fatigued with the subject--smile--so am just adding this update as an "ETA." Google is in English today, FWIW.