Google deems entire internet malware

Every link redirected to warning page

31 January 2009 15:21 GMT / By Stuart Miles

Google saw its entire search offering crippled on Saturday afternoon leaving millions of internet users unsure whether their search results led them to possibly dangerous sites that could harm their computer.

Google users clicking on a link regardless of the destination from any Google search result were told that visiting the site could harm your computer.

Instead of the site in question, users were re-directed to a Google page:

"Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!"

The error, which appeared around 3pm on Saturday seemed to affect every result for the search engine.

"Or you can continue to http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/ at your own risk. For detailed information about the problems we found, visit Google's Safe Browsing diagnostic page for this site", the page continued before suggesting "For more information about how to protect yourself from harmful software online, you can visit StopBadware.org".

The problem lasted around 20 minutes before being fixed by Google. We are awaiting a statement from the company as to what caused the problem.

Related
Full tags
Software, Online, Google
UK Shopping
Amazon.co.uk, play.com, pixmania.co.uk, Currys.co.uk, Dixons.co.uk, 7dayshop.com, ebay.co.uk
US Shopping
Amazon.com, bestbuy.com, ebay.com

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Comments

  • The problem is now fixed. See http://www.making-the-web.com/2009/01/31/google-bug-stops-searches/ Posted by Brendon, UK
  • It was my fault. I was looking at dirty pictures but it's sorted now. Posted by crispypankakes, lalaland
  • same thing happened to me scary stuff lol Posted by Frankie, England
  • STFU we all make mistakes Posted by Google, Google
  • pity that whoever wrote this can't use proper grammar - instead of "seem to effect every result" it should be "seemed to affect every result" Posted by Grammar Police, Ireland
  • I am a Big Fan of google and i am not going to let down my respect for google. Posted by Gizmowave, India
  • i was really disappointed with google..it really messed with my experience..and the company alledgely employs the most briliant people on earth Posted by umair usman, pakistan
  • Right, that's it, I'm going to go and find another world-class search engine .... er, Yahoo ? MSN ? Posted by Dave Hay, United Kingdom
  • Hey, Grammar Police,
    Shouldn't that be , "use grammar properly" ?
    Posted by Edd, sweden
  • Hey, Edd.
    Shouldn't that be, "Hey, Grammar Police."?
    Posted by The Punctuation Police, England
  • The problem was caused by stopbadware.org going down.
    It seems google was over-reliant on this malware website database.
    Posted by paul frogg, united kingdom
  • Would suggest people do a virus check as I've got something like 4 instances of the virutmonde virus dumped on my computer from the time of doing my last scan last night and about an hour ago. The only thing that has happened has been this google issue which I clicked on the stopbadware.org link Posted by Ian Wright, England
  • Any more grammar corrections and you're all goin' dahn!!! Posted by The Sad Bastard Police, United Kingdom
  • i find it most amusing that the pages that throw up the most 'malware site' warnings since this feature was introduced are googles own 'google translate' pages Posted by bob, UK
  • are we all so sad we have to comment on this????shouldnt we all look for other problems to moan about on the internet??? Posted by blogger retardent, england
  • Sorry for the seem seemed mistake - all fixed. Posted by stuartmiles, United Kingdom
  • Hey shit happens , dosnt it ? Posted by maxload, england
  • How many people were even up and Googling on a Saturday morning anyway? This probably affected more people in the eastern hemisphere for half-an-hour. Whoopdie doo!
    Posted by Bob Bobson, Earthsylvania

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