if I go to play.google.com, it automatically recognizes my country and allow me to browse the apps for that country. I can change the language through the dropdown in the footer
Looking for a solution to this exact problem brought me here, but unfortunately nobody gave the right answer. Here it is: Add the parameter gl=(countrycode).
For example, to see the list of top free business applications in your country, use this:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/BUSINESS/collection/topselling_free
Adding gl=ru gives you the list for Russia:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/category/BUSINESS/collection/topselling_free?gl=ru
Hope this helps.
The best solution I have found to use Tor Browser. You should set country code:
http://www.wikihow.com/Set-a-Specific-Country-in-a-Tor-Browser
For country codes:
http://www.b3rn3d.com/blog/2014/03/05/tor-country-codes/
Here are list of nice clickable links for lazy people like me:
If you spot any incorrect ones, feel free to edit of course.
You can also change language using the hl
parameter, like this:
To do this, you could use a program called TorBrowser Download Link Here From Cnet You can change around the settings a bit and select routing servers to go through only certain countries. The official website has some more documentation on this.
You practically answered your own question already: To force Google to display a page specific to a certain country you have to use a host that can send requests via IP ranges or providers that Google recognizes as being from that country. Proxies provide exactly that functionality.
Yes, you are right, developers or others in charge of testing Google services will likely not use proxies, though for a company that big providing a few test hosts in every country they operate in doesn't seem to be that big of a hassle.
If I had to implement a multinational service that provides content based on the location of the client I'd not try to obscure (as in security by obscurity) testing functionality by hiding it behind undocumented parameters. The cleaner and more obvious implementation of such a feature would be account-based functionalities.
Actually, all systems I develop do feature extended debugging and testing functionalities, even on live hosts, but those features are never enabled or accessible to users at all. After all, that's what user groups are for.
I would change both, the region gl
and the language hl
:
https://play.google.com/?hl=vi&gl=vn
Using this example, you will visit the Vietnamese store - both as region and as language.