# Why does Google search stop working?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 19, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578 "2012-12-19T21:48:28Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578/1 "2012-12-19T21:48:28Z")

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Lately, I’ll go to my Google box in my toolbar, and search for something. The answer will always return a 404 message, and will not give proper results.

If I use Yahoo to search, it’s fine. All my favorites and links work fine. It’s as though something is blocking Google.

FF or IE8, it matters not. Same result. I’ve turned Malwarebytes and Avast loose on the problem, but to no avail.

What am I infected with? Can I keep the swelling, but lose the itching?😃

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**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\
**Post date:** [December 19, 2012, 11:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578/2 "2012-12-19T23:58:44Z")

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Try clearing your cache, and removing the cookies for Google.

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**Author:** ![ducati](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/cc9497/32.png) [@ducati](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ducati)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578/3 "2012-12-20T02:41:57Z")

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Thanks, but not it. That’s the first thing I did. Same for IE8.

Running Adaware now, Spybot next. Something is re-directing everything Google.  
Even if I search for Google in Yahoo, and click the link to Google - no dice.

Here’s the response for “cat”.

Invalid URL  
The requested URL “/search?q=cat&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a”, is invalid.

Reference #9.8f3d4317.1355964976.db71979

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**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\
**Post date:** [December 20, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-google-search-stop-working/644578/4 "2012-12-20T15:38:51Z")

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Check your hosts file, you might have the url for google redirected.