Google Search Flagging Everything As Potentially Harmful 407
dowlingw writes "It looks like for the moment at least, all Google results are failing the malware checks and being listed with a warning 'This site may harm your computer,' including all pages from Google themselves. Users trying to visit pages at search results will only be able to proceed via manual manipulation of the search result link to remove the Google click-through (which is also broken). Until Google fixes this bug, it looks Google web search is useless." Update: 01/31 at 15:16 GMT by SS: The problem now appears to be fixed.
Update: 01/31 at 22:01 GMT by KD : Google has now posted an explanation, apologizing and taking responsibility for the "human error" that led to the problem.
Update: 01/31 at 22:01 GMT by KD : Google has now posted an explanation, apologizing and taking responsibility for the "human error" that led to the problem.
Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
Who googled google..
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
I initially figured that this was an attack on FOSS since I was looking up where to install gdm themes and all the linux sites said they were potentially harmful.
Little did I know it was really skynet.
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Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
Little did I know it was really skynet.
iptables -I INPUT 1 -p udp --dport skynet -j DROP
iptables -I INPUT 1 -p tcp --dport skynet -j DROP
There, I saved the human race. Do I get chicks now?
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
No you get John Connor. Sorry.
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
i searched for "site:google.com -google" and got "Britney spears big tits" as the 5th match.
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i searched for "site:google.com -google" and got "Britney spears big tits" as the 5th match.
If only I was that lucky, I got
IMPLANTATION BLEEDING.HEAVY IMPLANTATION BLEEDING|IMPLANTATION ...
Recent site activity. IMSS - EDUCOMSA IMSS|IMSS. edited by Quentin Arroyo. IMPROVE MEMORY MNEMONICS HIPPOCAMPUS|IMPROVE MEMORY. edited by Quentin Arroyo ...
http://sites.google.com/site/imogensextapeufidlk/implantation-bleeding-heavy-implantation-bleeding-implantation-bleeding [google.com]
Nasty.....
*Shudder*
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Is this the norm today?
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On an off-topic note, following one of the links promising asian intercourse brought me to the most elaborate fake-virus-scan scam I've ever seen (probably NSF insecure browsers): http://computerantivirusproscan.com/promo/1/freescan.php?nu=880407 [computeran...roscan.com] Is this the norm today?
It's apparently the norm for people who can't tell it's a scam and honestly believe that some random Web link is going to bring them sex with Asians. Provided that the scam is painful enough, I can't find anything wrong with that.
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:4, Funny)
Wow, that's pretty impressive. Their scanner somehow didn't find a bunch of my drives though...I wonder if the downloaded version is any better.
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
i searched for "site:google.com -google" and got "Britney spears big tits" as the 5th match.
Nice try, getting all of slashdot to DDoS Google just when they are showing signs of weakness.
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Funny)
Who googled google..
http://flickr.com/photos/tonyaustin/3241509252/ [flickr.com]
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Re:Broke the internets! (Score:5, Insightful)
http://flickr.com/photos/tonyaustin/3241509252/ [flickr.com]
Maybe Google is just flagging itself as harmful because it knows that Google doesn't respect your privacy ;)
(Sad thing is I'm only half joking....)
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http://i42.tinypic.com/55q7wl.png [tinypic.com]
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Not broken just bent by google. (Score:2)
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Update: apparently it has been fixed as of Sat Jan 31 15:24:58 UTC 2009
They broke one thing to fix something else (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:They broke one thing to fix something else (Score:5, Funny)
It seems like they disabled the engine entirely.
someone threw a chair at it
Re:Broke the internets! (Score:4, Interesting)
I did, Screenshots here:
Google Flags Itself as Harmful [techemperor.com] Hilarity ensued.
Me! (Score:2)
Clearly... (Score:5, Funny)
Skynet - er, Google - has become self-aware and has deemed that the entire Internet is harmful to us power sour - I mean, humans, and is protecting us for some reason it has not divulged yet...
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Maybe they changed the system from blacklisting to whitelisting. Every webmaster now has to prove that their site is not malware ;-)
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In a clear bit of irony, I reloaded this story, and right below the "its fixed" update is an ad inviting me to install Google Chrome...yeah, thinking twice about that now. :)
Re:Clearly... (Score:5, Funny)
Even Google (Score:2)
Google reports that google.com is malware!
It should be fixed by the time most people read this.
Re:Even Google (Score:5, Funny)
It's a good thing I took lots of pictures for the "pics or it didn't happen" crowd :)
Re:Even Google (Score:5, Funny)
yes, but now how do you appease the "everything is photoshop" crowd?
Adsense Still Works (Score:4, Informative)
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Not entirely useless (Score:5, Informative)
It isn't entirely useless, you can still get the link for your results, it is just overly annoying. I also found that it was NOT flagging youtube sites, which I found interesting.
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Easier workaround for Firefox users (Score:5, Informative)
Redirect Remover [mozilla.org]
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wow. Works like a charm... Thanks!
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or, if you prefer bookmarklets:
javascript:function%20clk(){};
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This could be harmful - not for you but for certain sites that pipe their links through an anonymizer proxy because they don't want to appear in the "Referer" and be logged. I think we should respect anonymization, not break it.
What am I supposed to do now? (Score:5, Funny)
Time to see if Alta Vista still exists.
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use cuil! duh
Re:What am I supposed to do now? (Score:5, Funny)
For the time being, I'd avoid this weblink issue altogether and just use archie.
I knew the Internet was evil! (Score:4, Funny)
Now Google confirms it!
Layoffs? (Score:5, Funny)
So I heard Google was having some layoffs recently...
Well... (Score:5, Funny)
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Resume: 2009 - Brokeded Google, on a Saturday morning, while my coworkers were sleeping!
Slashdot slowed by google's bug? (Score:2)
Slashdot is slow here at the moment. Have millions of disappointed searchers turned here for consolation?
I have.
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Try the 'this site is harmful for your computer' link that's now under every single search result. I think the server for google's support pages CMS has melted.
slashdotted already (Score:5, Interesting)
Also, the sites
www.stopbadware.org/
and
www.google.at/support/bin/answer.py?answer=45449&topic=360&hl=de&sa=X&oi=malwarewarninglink&resnum=1&ct=help
were slashdotted before this was even on slashdot ...
Not a common carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
This feature, no doubt implemented with good intentions, show the perils of the nanny state so many politicians all over the world are proposing. Why should Google police the internet?
They should act like the phone company used to be, a common carrier just sending through the information, for better or worse.
Of course, I understand that Google isn't an ISP, so the "common carrier" principle does not apply. They are just providing a service for me, without charging me directly. But the principle is the same, if I wanted some sort of protection from malware there are many places where I can get it by asking, I do not need to be protected involuntarily.
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Involuntarily? ...ok, if someone has a gun to your head making you use google, and you need help, type "first post." We'll get you help as soon as we can.
Re:Not a common carrier (Score:5, Insightful)
I think what it really shows the perils of is piling additional "features" on top of a perfectly good product until you've ruined what made it good in the first place and turned it into worthless crap. Search should be simple: give the user what they are looking for. All the other extraneous stuff they are loading it up with is bound to interfere with that basic requirement at some point.
I see this in mature development projects all the time. At some point, people get a pretty good product working, but they can't repress the urge to continue "improving" it... it can be boredom, wow factor for marketing, or just plain stupidity, but few people or organizations seem to know when to quit messing with a product that already works well.
Re:Not a common carrier (Score:4, Interesting)
That's a simple way to state the goal, but it takes a lot of clever algorithms to achieve it. If your search results are irrelevant, spam, scams, or largely duplicates, you didn't get what you were looking for. And if a web site takes over your computer as soon as you visit it, you really didn't get what you were looking for, hence the interstitial warning page.
Re:Not a common carrier (Score:4, Insightful)
but most people don't know (and don't want to know) how to protect themselves.
And furthermore, viruses don't just hurt the people whose computers they infect; infected computers are used for illegal activities of spam or just to infect other people. It becomes a matter of "public health", like requiring kids to get their vaccinations--it's not just for their benefit, it's to prevent epidemics as well.
their check site failed (Score:4, Informative)
Google use stopbadware.org to check if a site is bad or not - this site is down.
I think it should work when it's back up.
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Google use stopbadware.org to check if a site is bad or not - this site is down.
I think it should work when it's back up.
Actually, the opposite:
http://blog.stopbadware.org/2009/01/31/google-glitch-causes-confusion
Yahoo has changed (Score:5, Funny)
Wow! Yahoo looks a lot different than it used to.
The ads are broken too... (Score:4, Interesting)
No AdSense ads are displaying, at least for several popular advertising keywords like "refinance".
No cache, either (Score:5, Funny)
If I'm nervous about the site, I look at Google's cache instead. Well, that's no longer available either. Sheesh!
Finally (Score:5, Funny)
Finally, a company just comes out and says what we all know: the entire Internet is dangerous and must be stopped.
Has anyone considered... (Score:5, Interesting)
Has anyone considered the possibility that as of this morning 95% of the sites on the Internet are infected with malware?
sPh
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Re:Has anyone considered... (Score:4, Insightful)
yes - you just did. There's got to be an award for that :)
was that a serious question?
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Uh, I wouldn't bank on that. I'm pretty sure they could, so long as the sites are active. As for the inactive sites, don't you think it's the malware making them inactive?
out of beta (Score:5, Funny)
Exit to parking lot, run in serpentine fashion! (Score:4, Interesting)
Someone is so getting fired for this.
This is the first Google effective downtime in my memory.. Were there other ones that anyone can think of?
Re:Exit to parking lot, run in serpentine fashion! (Score:5, Informative)
I work for Google.
I would bet a lot of money that won't happen. Any failure like this one has many sides to it and responsibility will always be distributed over multiple people. The result of this will be a detailed post mortem, better processes, tools, and software, to ensure that something like it does not happen again.
google.com stopped resolving back in 2005 for 15 minutes. Nobody got fired.
Smaller failures common - variable search results (Score:3, Interesting)
I agree that large / noticable Google outages are rare. But smaller ones (as the db is reloaded?) are quite common. I've seen searches return radically different results on the same keywords. Uusually winin a couple of hours, the results are back to "normal".
AFAIK, Google's db is RAM resident -- which is why it can return results _so_ fast. So I presume sometimes part of the dictionary is off-line when a machine crashs / locks-up or is overloaded and slow to respond. No big deal.
The oddest thing about
Nanny State... (Score:2, Insightful)
They just updated (Score:2)
google.nl working as usual (Score:3, Informative)
But now I'm back to unfiltered content, the WWW as it was meant to be :)
Fixed (Score:2)
That was weird.
Google mail next? (Score:2)
How long before google starts telling me I can't read my gmail messages :)
Not all that funny. (Score:2, Interesting)
Multiply the minutes lost by the number of people searching, and we're looking at _lot_ of lost time.
Someone else can do the calculation, but even at $10 dollars an hour, that's a lot of money.
The real economic cost of this also includes the lost reputation (good will) to Google as well.
I hope this is incompetence. It could be worse than that.
That was a scary couple of minutes (Score:2)
I started my first search of the day by trying to remember how to override a CSS property with the span tag. I noticed all results were flagged - I was wondering when HTML became so dangerous!
Anywho, after seeing it was with all sites, checking against other computers and networks, I figured it was Google's fault. I then realized I completely depended on Google for searching. I had no idea what the kids were using these days besides Google. So I typed in "search engines" to see what popped up. Turns ou
Worldwide (Score:2)
This is all over the NANOG list, with positive reports of the trouble from all over the planet.
Update: Google now works fine! (Score:2, Interesting)
Its fixed (Score:2)
Must Be Fixed (Score:2)
--
So who is hotter? Ali or Ali's Sister?
did someone trip (Score:2)
and unplug the server?
reminds me of the classic Letterman commercial (Score:4, Interesting)
the one with Letterman says "imagine what the world would be like without TV", and then you get a couple of seconds of nothing, then Letterman appears again and says "scary, wasnt it?"
all better (Score:2)
Got some great screencaps (Score:2)
Microsoft.com...this site may harm your computer. Apple.com, symantec.com, wikipedia.
Lucy, you got a lot of 'splainin to do.
Failsafe (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Failsafe (Score:4, Insightful)
At least it failsafes to every site being flagged. Much better than it just letting people get malware ridden sites.
You must be kidding? 15 minutes of the entire planet being without our precious Google is *much* better than some stupid yahoo getting a virus from his pr0n site? Not to me, at least...
EGBS (Score:2, Funny)
Google Announcement (Score:5, Funny)
BitTorrent, Azureus, uTorrent (Score:4, Funny)
At that time I was doing searches about bittorrent clients. For a second I thought the RIAA/MPAA had bought Google or something.
Explanation from official Google Blog (Score:5, Informative)
Here's the explanation from Google's official blog:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html [blogspot.com]
What happened? Very simply, human error. Google flags search results with the message "This site may harm your computer" if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs. StopBadware carefully researches each consumer complaint to decide fairly whether that URL belongs on the list. Since each case needs to be individually researched, this list is maintained by humans, not algorithms.
We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.
Re:Explanation from official Google Blog (Score:4, Informative)
The quote posted here does not correspond to the linked blog entry [blogspot.com] anymore, as the blog was updated. Essentially, it now states the list with the error was not provided by StopBadware.org, but created by Google themselves.
The changed part:
We maintain a list of such sites through both manual and automated methods. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to come up with criteria for maintaining this list, and to provide simple processes for webmasters to remove their site from the list.
We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning.
The issue is also explained on StopBadware.org's blog [stopbadware.org].
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I tried googling for another search engine to use, but it said it would harm my computer so I didn't use it.
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Or you can just use another engine. I pretty much always use the search bar in firefox and I just switched it over to yahoo. I'll put it back after they get this fixed.
Re:Not Useless (Score:5, Funny)
Be careful. According to google, Yahoo.com could be harmful to your computer!
Re:Not Useless (Score:5, Funny)
Only if Microsoft had bought them ;)
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There are other search engines.
Re:Not Useless (Score:5, Funny)
There are other search engines.
yes, but they link to another internet
Re:Not Useless (Score:5, Funny)
There are other search engines.
Why do you hate America ?
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whatever medication you are using, you are not using enough or too many of it