Unblock websites

Question

Dear All,
For the last month or so I have been unable to access www.google.com or any other site using the server "google".  Other sites, like googlemaps are ok because they are preceded by maps, ie. www.maps.google.com.  I am told that, "Safari cannot open the page http://www.google.com because the server where the page is located is not responding".
I have tried resetting Safari and also connecting to google via Firefox, but same result.  When this initially occurred instead of saying the page is unavailabe it forwarded me to an Apache page saying "It worked", I have no idea what that means, but it no longer does that.
As you can imagine this is very frustrating, can anyone please help me solve this issue.  I'm affraid it might be something very simple that I am unaware of, having limited knowledge of internet lingo.
Thanks in advance,
Swidge83

Answer 1

If you want to fix your Google search to a specific Google location, I recommend that you download and install the free plug-in Glims:
http://www.machangout.com/
which not only does that but much more equally useful stuff! Such as enabling Safari to run full-screen, and more.)
(It adds items to Safari Preferences).
Not only does it already list a number of search engines and regions, but you can also add any other search engine not already listed in Glims by using the method described here:
http://www.machangout.com/tutorials/addsearchengine
Just enter the name you give the search engine in the name field, and the URL for it in the Query URL field.
(Glims does not work with Tiger)