IE9 pathetic choice of search providers in the United Kingdom

Why I hate Internet Explorer
Had some trouble with the annoying Babylon search I finally managed to get rid of it but was left with Bing as the default search engine I prefer Google so I went to add it but it was absent from the UK search providers the only real competition for Bing that
Microsoft allows is the Ask & Yahoo search engines plenty of rubbish options like confused.com or BBC music search but no Google !
I did find a Google accelerator in the add-ons but you cannot set it as the default search engine.
I had to revisit the search engine page & change the gb in the Address bar to us & get the Google search provider from the US site.

Have you tried clicking on Tools/Manage Add-ons/Search Providers, then highlight Google and choose in the lower part of the window "Set as default".

After installing Google from the US site of course I did that.
Compare the sites for Great Britain , Australia, Canada & the United States.
Microsoft treat their overseas customers with contempt.

Internet Explorer Gallery
Internet Explorer Gallery
Internet Explorer Gallery
Internet Explorer Gallery

I just tried the UK link. I put Google in the search area and found the window that lets me choose as search provider or as accellerator. After choosing search provider, I got the screen to add to IE. I don't see how that process is different from the US site. (I often have trouble finding what I want in the browse list so I always need to use the wierd "search area" next to the magnifying glass icon.)

The problem now is the search box is entirely missing from the (Australian) site and the URL has changed. This is the old URL:

Internet Explorer Gallery

And the "us" needs to be changed to "en-us".

Microsoft is pathetic - it took me 3 hours to go through this entire process when it should have taken 3 seconds. This kind of harrassment of their userbase can only make us hate them more. We spend hundreds of millions on MS products at work and I will never recommend them again.

Old url: http://www.iegallery.com/us/addons/?feature=searchproviders

Redirects here: http://www.iegallery.com/en-us/addons?callback=true&featuretype=2

and seems to be working correctly for me, in California.

Ah, yes the old one was redirecting me too - but to the Australian site.

I had to type in the current URL for the US site exactly in order to get there.