I just did a few searches on google, using Safari, and I got this page:
Do I have malware? Is it something to do with the Apple upgrade, which I believe included a Safari security update? A new ‘feature’ from google?
First things first: are you human?
Google may be complaining because you are passing your search query as an XML stream. Try instead the space-delimited list of English words format.
I was entering a words. (The one in the OP was a search on F-104, which is one I like to look up occasionally.)
I found on google’s site that this is probably legitimate; but I’ve never seen it before. Maybe they want people to start using Bing? (I’d ask them if they’d rather people used other search engines, but there’s no way to contact anyone at google.)
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It can be malware - they don’t do it for nothing. Their computer thinks your computer is sending automatic queries. It does make mistakes, but I’ve only had it do it for a certain type of query for me (which is VERY unusual). It has caught onto programs/toolbars/utilities making automated queries.
If it doesn’t happen again I wouldn’t worry about it. If it does - and you aren’t doing some advanced weird queries - I’d look into scanning your computer. Google doesn’t make money pissing off its users for no reason.
I’ve never used Safari, but something similar happened to me a year or two ago with a different browser. The problem was a browser add-on that somehow got installed. Norton did nothing to prevent its installation, to recognize it as a problem, or to remove it. I went into the browser settings and disabled all the add-ons (extensions, toolbars) that I didn’t recognize, and that fixed the problem.
You should have said you’d pick the tortoise up.
I just hope Johnny L.A. is programmed with Asimov’s Three Laws.
Well, are you?
Sorry, that’s to trap people like me.
I tried a search this morning, and it was fine. Frustrating last night, though.
That would be telling.
Note the earlier exchange:
Result of Turing Test: FAIL
A tortoise? What’s that?
You know what a turtle is?
They go all the way down, right?
I’ve found that certain search modifiers tend to queries flagged for captcha review, though that was a few years ago, so it may have changed since.
In particular putting the allintext modifier at the start of your query or having several words after intext almost always triggered the no automatic queries allowed (what they did before implementing the captcha system)
Do you make up these questions, Mr. Holden, or do they write 'em down for you?
Could a CAPTCHA distinguish a human from a dog?
Are you using a proxy, VPN, free Wifi, shared school or office internet?
Time… to die…
Too many similar searches in a short period tends to trip it, with too many defined as not that many.