Spyware google searches?

This has never happened to me before. I googled “review rent the musical” without the quote marks because, well, I wanted to see the reviews of the musicla “Rent.” I got the following response:

We’re sorry…
… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software

Whats up with that. Has google been the victim of DOS attacks. And what about my request is so peculiar that it would be tagged?

Works for me. Can’t say what caused the problem though.

What isn’t shown is that it then has a box with those wavy letters that you are supposed to type in and when I did it took me to the page you link to (or one very similar). It was a minor inconvenience. I don’t know why hackers would like the play rent so much it would arouse the suspicions of google though.

Sometimes those wavy letters are TOO wavy. I can’t understand them, let alone re-type them. :confused:

If you put the error message into Google (the delicious irony! :smack: ) you’ll see that many people are having this issue. Some say it’s related to Opera.

e.g. this posting.

I thought it was just me. I sometimes have to try two or three times before I can manage to figure out which letters are in a secret code. The worst part is you only get one try with each combo!

The better sites nowadays have an option to “click here to listen to the letters”.