I'VE DONE IT!!!!!!!

1. Deleted everything I could find with 'Google Chrome' in the title. Also Right clicked the Google Chrome Application & Clicked 'Show Package Contents' & deleted all that too.

2. Empty Trash

3. Re-download Google Chrome

4. Do what Mabb says up there about the Default folder & also his advice about copying & pasting the text in the 'Local State' file PLUS ******

5. Whilst in the 'Local State' document in Text Edit do a 'find' (Apple key & F) for google.de (or whatever you are having trouble with & change to google.co.uk (or whatever you want it to say!)

6. Finally open Google & do the searchy thing in the address bar & woo hoo job done (finally!)

Who thinks I'll get a job as a Google Programmer as I have clearly have done what they cannot! Thanks for the teamwork Mabb you can have a job too... x x x

This problem is being worked on by the Chrome developers now.

Thanks mabb! "Local state" method worked perfectly in Win7!!! I'm so happy!!!

If you find yourself with this problem, here is the related bug for you to track the progress of its resolution: http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=54274

Clicking the Star to the left of the title "Issue 66062" will give you notifications of status changes. It can also let the developers know how big an issue this is for people.

I'm running into this issue as well after traveling to the UK once.

That link to Chromium Issues is very helpful. The two available solutions are at comments #6 and #28, but avoid the ideas at #10 and #19, because you will lose the Suggestions service in the address bar (bookmarks and history will still appear, but other suggestions will not appear).

This is so annoying! Thanks for answer above but sounds way to difficult for me! All the other answers I have seen only 'add' a default engine, rather than fix the search / multi bar search country. Mine is .de when I am in UK (co.uk) !!!!

@henners  The solution in Comment 6 at the above link says: visit www.google.com, do a search on that page (not in the address bar), close Chrome, and reopen Chrome. Has the address bar search reset? It sounds too simple. Does it work? Try again with www.google.co.uk. Does that work?

It doesn't work! I think I deleted the google.de (default) search engine by mistake!
I also deleted the whole application & re - downloaded it but it's the same as before! I'm on a Mac so just dragged the folder in the trash & emptied it? Is there something else I need to delete?
Many thanks for your help - it's doing my head in... Thinking of going back to Safari which is a shame as Google Chrome was good :-(

@henners  If you can take it slowly, try following these steps. It is just a matter of changing two lines in a text file (to www.google.co.uk in your case).

Woah that was scary - I've never changed anything like that before!!

I slowly went through & found everything you said... It's called TextEdit on a mac & I had to find the User Data in my personal User file, under the path you mentioned....

I did everything you said but I think I have an additional problem that I deleted the Google search engine in the top box of my search engine preferences in an attempt to remove it & replace it with the right one! I now have yahoo as my default & no typing in the search bar!!!

Wish I could attach a picture to show you...

Does anyone know how to COMPLETELY remove Google so that all the preferences & everything go away & then I can re-install again & try what you said??

Oh! I tried what you said but it still didn't work so I retried the "user data" thing & still no joy!

Thanks for all you help mabb! I think this is the first time my problem has been totally understood!

Cheers!

@henners   Well done so far! You could create a new browser profile to solve the problem of the deleted default Google search. Carefully follow the information at the reference below.

I'm a Mac though! What is the equivalent of the Start Menu...? Thanks!

@henners  OK, don't worry about the start menu.  You just need to go to the same folder you were in for the previous task. In that User Data folder, there is a folder called Default. Chrome must be closed before you do this. Rename the folder called Default to BackupDefault. Then try starting Chrome and see what happens. Does it fix the problem?

No! Sorry... I'm experimenting with a full delete of every file with google chrome in the title & a new install... fingers crossed?!

@henners.  Oops, that's not the way to remove software. You have to Uninstall it. Chrome has its own uninstaller program on your computer.  Search for "Uninstall Chrome" in the place where you can search for files on a Mac.  If that fails, search Mac help for "uninstall software".

It is on a Mac honest! You just right click & show package contents then drag to the trash! Only PC's have add/remove programs stuff...

@henners   That isn't what you said you were doing though. You said you were experimenting with deleting files. There's more to installing software than just files, at least there is on a PC. Good luck anyway. There's no harm looking at Mac help. Hope it goes well reinstalling.

Seems you're right, but you have to have administrative rights.

@henners  I closed Chrome, then renamed the Default folder in \Users\{username}\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\User Data (the folder path on a PC) to Default Backup, then reopened Chrome. I have a new user profile, with all my search engines gone and replaced by a short list of four search engines including the Google default.

I've been having this problem for months.

I don't speak Finnish and tried to set my default choice set to Google dot com which will not give me a live 'OK' button. So...

 I THINK WE SHOULD ALL START UNINSTALLING CHROME AND TELL GOOGLE, WHEN THEY POP UP THE 'WHY' QUESTION, THAT THIS IS THE REASON.

Then maybe they will wake up and let the browser do what the user prefers. Or they should let us know how to fix the problem, which they caused.
Searching for the answer in forums is only the blind leading the blind.