# Snopes= spyware? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [December 21, 2005, 10:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690 "2005-12-21T22:09:02Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/21 "2005-12-22T18:44:37Z")
> [@chrisk](#): > > Umm, isn’t about:blank also a fairly typical way to do popups?? Instead of opening a new window at a predefined URL, you open a window for a blank location, (thus the about:blank,) and write content into it from the opening page, using javascript. > > AFAIK there’s nothing more sinister about this than any other popup ad. Seems to me like you could be overreacting dr deth. Seconded. From what I’ve seen, _all_ popups flash “about:blank” for a second before they connect. Sometimes they’ll hang and the popup window will stay as “about:blank”. There is nothing nefarious going on. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/22 "2005-12-22T18:52:19Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > I see you point, but whether or not it’s the same trojan, “about:blank” is the comonly accepted name of a notorious trojan. Not according to Symantec and they keep track of this sort of thing. ---
**Author:** ![Polycarp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/82dd89/32.png) [@Polycarp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Polycarp)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/23 "2005-12-22T22:51:17Z")
> [@Lute Skywatcher](#): > > Not according to Symantec and they keep track of this sort of thing. Well, Symantec (whose software would crash regularly on my computer) is ignorant, then. about:blank is (a) the command to MSIE, and presumably other browsers, to load a completely blank page, and (b) a CoolWebSearch variant that self-downloaded, stored itself as a randomly named DLL so extirpating it was a bitch, and assumed the identity of the blank “about:blank” page. IMO the Peter they’ve been consulting for their information is not Mr. Norton, but one they’re attached to. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/24 "2005-12-22T23:00:25Z")
Plus, Symantec might simply have a different name for it, every company makes their own names for this stuff. ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2005, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/25 "2005-12-22T23:28:42Z")
> [@Polycarp](#): > > Well, Symantec (whose software would crash regularly on my computer) is ignorant, then. about:blank is (a) the command to MSIE, and presumably other browsers, to load a completely blank page, and (b) a CoolWebSearch variant that self-downloaded, stored itself as a randomly named DLL so extirpating it was a bitch, and assumed the identity of the blank “about:blank” page. IMO the Peter they’ve been consulting for their information is not Mr. Norton, but one they’re attached to. 😉 No, Symantec does associate CoolWebSearch and Adware.Fastsearchweb with about:blank but those are the only two. They have absolutely nothing about a trojan being associated with about:blank. ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/26 "2005-12-23T01:07:53Z")
As this isn’t really Pitworthy, I’m moving this to MPSIMS. ---
**Author:** ![Zoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/a4c791/32.png) [@Zoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zoe)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/27 "2005-12-23T01:39:30Z")
Thanks, **GSV Consolidation of Dreams**. I was hoping that was it, but “they” can make it look so official. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/28 "2005-12-23T02:48:23Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > In any case, Snopes has obnoxious Pop-ups, designed to get past security settings. Whether or not this current pop-up will load one of the “about:blank” trojans on one computer is besides the point. No, it’s really not besides the point. Popups may be annoying, but they’re nowhere near the sort of annoying that a destructive hijacker like CoolWebSearch is. You are reacting to seeing “about:blank” (which is, in this context, totally innocent, harmless, and safe as milk) as though it is a _route_ of spyware infection. It’s not. Having your homepage stuck as a crappy search page, while the address field reads “about:blank” is an indication that you’ve got a hijacker. There is no known spyware out there that will load blank pop-ups at a particular site. Whatcha got going on there is a pop-up blocker that doesn’t work very well. Accusing a website of foisting malicious and destructive software is quite different from noting that they have pop-up advertising. Myself, I don’t believe I have _ever_ seen an ad of any sort on Snopes, annoying or not. If you’d rather not get worked up about it, use this simple [hostsfile-based adblocker](http://www.everythingisnt.com/hosts.html), and stop fretting. It’ll work like a charm, even if you use that shitty browser that seems to be the only one without consistently reliable pop-up blocking built right into it. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/29 "2005-12-23T02:54:43Z")
I apologize to IE users for that dig. I didn’t realize that Firefox’s pop-up blocking was unreliable. I sure do loves me some Opera. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2005, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690/30 "2005-12-23T04:03:15Z")
> [@Larry Mudd](#): > > I apologize to IE users for that dig. I didn’t realize that Firefox’s pop-up blocking was unreliable. > > I sure do loves me some Opera. I remember well the first time I got a pop-up on Firefox. It was on Snopes. Eventually, Firefox was giving me as many pop-ups as IE ever did. Ironically, Microsoft then added a pop-up blocker to IE which made that browser better than Firefox, at least as far as pop-ups were concerned. I’m now back to using IE, with the Google toolbar adding an extra layer of pop-up protection. (The Google toolbar is just awsesome in general. A search engine, pop-up blocker, and spelling checker, plus some other stuff that I don’t use.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/snopes-spyware/336690.md?page=1)