What's up with Google?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
21

Thanks for the link, Rico.

I’ve run Spybot, and it got rid of a few things, but the problem is still there.

Aveguy says he will look things over for me, and we’ll see if any of the other protective software mentioned in the link can help. (It’s up to him to deal with downloading any new programs on this comp.)

Thanks again.

22

I don’t think it is spyware; I’m very careful about that and As far as I can tell, there’s nothing like that on this machine, but sometimes when I search (suppose I’m searching for ‘bananas’, all I get is “Compare prices for bananas”, 'Get the best deal on bananas", “Hot girls want to give you bananas today” etc.

I think it is just that there are some sites that have managed undeservedly to get themselves a high google rank.

23

Ok, when I search “baltimore newspaper” I get the following results from Google:

It looks to me like something is messing with your attempts to use Google.

24

DakotaDog

What you’ve displayed comes up as the second page of Google for us folks having this weird problem. But when you go to that second page, it becomes the first page of Google, and the linkspam-filled first page disappears.

Yes, but what?

25

Check your “hosts” file. In Windows 2000 it is found in c:\winnt\system32\drivers\etc. Open it with notepad. If you find entries for www.google.com, then you are being redirected to the bogus “Google” site. In most cases, the “hosts” file only needs to look like this:


127.0.0.1       localhost
26

I had this same problem and running CWShredder (which is linked to on the other thread mentioned above) fixed it for me. So definitely give that a try if you haven’t already.

27

There have been other threads on this very topic… but searching for google or spyware is an exercise in frustration.

28

I’ve been having the same problem but I didn’t have a clue that it was spyware. I just ran CWShredder, Ad- Aware 6.0 and Spybot S&D and now everything’s fine. Here are the instructions I used for configuring Ad-Aware and Spybot

29

I have found Google’s value greatly decreasing in the last couple years due to Jerks who game the Google ranking algorithm.

If I am looking for a product, there’s a good chance that at least 18 of the first 20 hits are pretty much the same page. Different server names and all, but the same stuff, pictures, descriptions, prices, etc. And there’s no way until you go to the page to find out if it’s the 19th copy of what you’ve already seen.

If I am not looking for a product, but there’s even a slight chance that my keywords would infer I am looking for product, then it’s even worse.

Google’s failure to deal with this (When it is so Freakin’ Obvious!) ticks me off.

30

I had the same exact problem - the same exact kind of links coming up - and CWShredder (which removes CoolWebSearch spyware) fixed it for me.

31

It’s definitely spyware. I had the same problem a few months ago and I contacted Google to complain about how horrible their service was getting. They sent me back a message recommending AdAware. :smack:

I used AdAware, AND Spybot. Neither one was able to fix it. I had to get a demo version of SpySweeper, which was finally able to remove all the browser hijackers.

Good luck - I hope you get everything fixed quickly!

32

So, I cleaned out all of my temporary internet files and folders. I saved one cookie. The one for the SDMB. The rest of them I deleted. I had only one when I shut down earlier today. Now I look and there’s 35 temp files and cookies. Several are the result of me being here of course BUT…BIG BUT I have not used Google since this morning BEFORE I deleted everything and NOW I find about a dozen files and THIS site address which doesn’t go anywhere.
http://config.sa.aol.com/sa/v1.0/AOL/ When I see config on an address it kinda gets my attention.

WTF is it and why is it there again? Is it some maintenance/update crap that’s fff…ing up my system? I cleaned it out again BUT I bet it’s back in the AM. Goddamned AOL I’m gonna check it to 'em ASAP. Any suggestions on a good server? I’ve had MSN, AOL, Compuserve, PPShare, and a few I can’t recall. So far this is the worst. :mad:

and BTW the other cookies were addressed to the popup sites and search engine links.

33

It is DEFINITELY spyware. I had the exact same problem on Saturday. Use Spybot. Get the latest version of Ad-Aware AND after you’ve downloaded the program get hte latest updates for the search through the program itself.

I also had to use a program named Hijack This to get to the root of it. Neither Spybot nor Ad-Aware (both of which I have and run regularly) completely solved my spyware problem. You can get that from http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/

34

I, too, had the same problem until last night. SpyBot, AdAware, and Trend did nothing (although Trend did find a couple trojans, so that was all good anyway) However, Hijack This took care of the problem in a trice. My Google is now hijack free. Thanks, all!