

Google giving Malware Warning on all search results (now fixed) - danw
http://i44.tinypic.com/2qbub9j.png

======
mdasen
Well, the important part is that AdWords doesn't seem to be broken ;-). I can
click through those links with no warning at all! Even when they're the same
link as one of the malware links. New way to make money?

On a realistic note, do you think Google will refund their advertisers' money
during this problem (since I'm guessing there will be higher click rates for
things like "apple" where Apple Computer is both the first "organic" result
and has purchased ads, but now the organic results are "malware")?

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sam
Wow. Since clicking on any search result brings up the warning page, Google is
unusable. Everywhere. I never thought I'd see this.

I wonder how much this is costing the global economy per second...

~~~
robg
I wonder how much it's costing _Google_ per second...

~~~
mechanical_fish
I wonder how much it's costing _me_ per second. I was right in the middle of
some research! Now I'm going to spend a hour surfing HN looking for fresh new
Google jokes!

On the other hand, nothing brings people from around the world together like a
bug in Google.

~~~
paraschopra
I wondering how much it's costing HN per second

~~~
jonursenbach
17.3 cents

------
astrid
Honor to the first submission with a correct title, I deleted mine. It's
official, Google is broken. It was so unexpected that I wondered if I hadn't a
malware.

------
steamboiler
Here is the official explanation from Google:
[http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-
yo...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-
computer-on.html)

~~~
timf
" _StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs_ "

" _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._ "

Sounds like an opportunity to add a new acceptance test on items in that list
:-)

~~~
timf
Turns out they do not get a lits of URLs from there.

cf. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=460426>

------
danw
Seems to be affecting everyone:
[http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22may+harm+your+computer...](http://search.twitter.com/search?q=%22may+harm+your+computer%22)

~~~
Jem
Went from 37 results to over 300 in the space of a minute.

------
patio11
Its like the Internet just stopped.

It is midnight in Japan and here I am writing emails to customers saying "No
no, don't worry, I haven't infected your computer... it is _Google_ that has
the problem."

~~~
gravitycop
_Its like the Internet just stopped._

A la _The Source of Magic_. One day, all of the magic in Xanth was turned off.
For awhile, Xanth was like Mundania.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Source_of_Magic>

~~~
patio11
Apropos of nothing, my friends have suggested Xanth to me on and off again for
over a decade now. I know nothing about it except that Amazon will deliver it
to my doorstep. What three books should I be buying?

~~~
gravitycop
_What three [Xanth] books should I be buying?_

Perhaps not the one I mentioned, since I just spoiled it for you. :) I have
found that adults don't tend to like Piers Anthony's writing (it's filled with
puns and adolescent soft-porn humor), but if you want to better know where
your friends - who might have read Xanth books at ages at which they could
better appreciate the writing style - are coming from, I would pick the first
three of the series:

    
    
      * A Spell for Chameleon
      * The Source of Magic
      * Castle Roogna

~~~
apu
If you want some more mature books from Piers Anthony, the _Apprentice Adept_
series and _Incarnations of Immortality_ series are better than the _Xanth_
ones. Plus, they're both only 7-8 books long, so it won't take you forever to
read them all (if you actually get into them).

Apprentice Adept is kind of a cool dual-world series, with sci-fi in one world
and fantasy in the other, and the ability for some to move between them. You
should start with the first in the series, of course: _Split Infinity._

Incarnations of Immortality also has the juxtaposition of sci-fi and fantasy,
but in one world. The "hook" for this series is that the major "forces" in the
world (time/death/fate/war/etc...) are actually offices which people fill
(think _The Santa Clause_ , but without Tim Allen or christmas). The first
book of the series is _On A Pale Horse_.

A final word of warning: I read both of these series a long time ago, so it
could be that they're actually not as mature as I remember =)

------
magoghm
I was doing searches on Google and everything was OK. Then I did a search for
"Bill of Rights" and I got all those nasty malware warnings. It really freaked
me out until I realized Google was doing that with any search :)

------
mmelin
I bet Omar Shahine at Microsoft is smiling right now:
<http://news.cnet.com/8301-17939_109-10153165-2.html>

"Cutts responded, in effect, that Google knows plenty about running big Web
sites, thank you very much. 'Google runs Web services with many users and
servers too and we launch changes weekly or faster,' he said."

------
pclark
This is an _enormous_ bug - its similar to Microsoft Office not working for
half an hour.

I can't fathom how much this will have cost google - in terms of $$$ and
reputation -- millions of people will now be unsure to trust googles "this
site may be unsafe"

It'll be fascinating to see if Yahoo/MSN get a noticeable spike in searches.

------
ktharavaad
Deleted mine too, here's a screenshot in case they fix it

<http://tinyurl.com/b4k25q>

Its really LOL that they mark google.com as "may harm your computer"

~~~
physcab
I know. Even when I search for google properties, everything comes up with
that same error. Interesting.

------
robg
First time I've ever used yahoo search.

~~~
kenver
I even gave msn search a go!

~~~
prakash
what, no love for cuil?

------
daleharvey
heh we posted these at the same time, deleted mine since it would be best if
there wasnt a hundred OMG google is broken on the front page

I bet whoever just deployed the upgrade is kicking themselves right now though

~~~
sabat
... while standing in the unemploymment line, yeah.

------
steamboiler
Looks like it has been fixed.

~~~
mechanical_fish
I'm not sure whether to be impressed or terrified that Google can -- and,
apparently, does -- roll out updates across their entire server farm in a
matter of a minute or two.

~~~
eru
"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." from [http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-
site-may-harm-yo...](http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-
harm-your-computer-on.html)

~~~
mechanical_fish
Okay, it sounds like it actually takes 13 to 15 minutes to roll out an update
across the entire farm. That feels more like what I was expecting.

~~~
eru
Compare: "How to 0wn the Internet in Your Spare Time"
<http://www.icir.org/vern/papers/cdc-usenix-sec02/cdc.pdf>

------
Jem
My mum just called me to ask me if her computer was infected.

I wonder how many people around the world are now panicking?

------
sounddust
Wow, I can't seem to get to StopBadware.org today, I wonder why?

------
pc
It's not even just English:
[http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=news&btnG=Google...](http://www.google.de/search?hl=de&q=news&btnG=Google-
Suche&meta=),
[http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=乗り換え案内&btnG=G...](http://www.google.co.jp/search?hl=ja&q=乗り換え案内&btnG=Google+検索&lr=&aq=8r&oq=n)

------
jackowayed
Google doesn't quite think that everything may harm your computer. Neither
wikipedia nor facebook will.

Interestingly:

[http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http://www.google.com...](http://www.google.com/interstitial?url=http://www.google.com/)

Google thinks Google may harm your computer.

~~~
drenei
I actually had a wikipedia page give me the malware warning.

Google: Trust no one!

Me: Not even wikipedia?

(Encyclopaedia Britannica laughs maniacally in the background)

------
jneal
I was doing research this morning for a radio show I host, and Amazon came up
as malware. I was like what??? Malware on Amazon? Then I went back, and
noticed every website was malware. I had to laugh, but it is interesting that
Google doesn't have some sort of testing process before rolling out updates
live.

------
WhiteHawk
I wonder if all the big corporations could sue Google for defamation now..?
o_O

I find it amusing that Google warned me away from the Microsoft website as it
might harm my computer!

Small things...

------
boris
First it was that Android root shell fiasco. Now this. I wonder if this whole
"holier than thou" attitude towards Google will finally start to subside.

------
sfk
I don't understand why Google is dabbling in all sorts of areas while
neglecting their core business.

The Usenet search and the groups interface were truly wonderful a couple of
years ago. Now the interface is a web 2.0 abomination and the search is
_completely_ broken.

The web search is still o.k., but not astonishing compared to other search
engines. Google is really showing signs of becoming a fat company. I would not
be surprised if in a couple of years their calculator returns 77.1*850 =
100000.

------
rgrieselhuber
I just saw this - glad it's not just me.

------
danw
Would be interesting to see stats in the aftermath on site traffic drops or if
Yahoo traffic increases.

------
z3r0p4r4d0x
I think it's the safety filter feature from Chrome that they're implementing
site-wide, gone wrong.

------
physcab
I just searched YAHOO for "Google malware problem". Oh wow, I never thought
this day would come.

------
acangiano
Antivirus producers will rejoice at this. Many end-users will think they got
infected.

------
rockstar9
not all results gives me the malware

check out searching "hello"
[http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hello&btnG=Sear...](http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hello&btnG=Search)

------
bmelton
Actually, I think the problem was misreported. It seemed as though google
flagged its own interstitial page as malware, as all the search result links
showed as
[http://google.com/search?interstitial=<URL>](http://google.com/search?interstitial=<URL>),
and THAT page was malware -- unless I'm overlooking something obvious, like
the interstitial page is only shown when adware is detected.

Regardless, the search engine worked perfectly, it was just the links that
weren't working. Simply removing the 'google' part of the URL allowed me to
get to the sites just fine.

------
jonursenbach
I feel sorry for the poor sap who's going to get fired for this.

~~~
sven
I'm not, if that person is the idiot that made a filter mandatory. But I fear
the little technician, that reasoned against filtering in the first place,
will get the boot.

------
jncraton
Fixed at 10:17 AM EST

------
pistoriusp
It looks like it only effects you if you're logged in.

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jackowayed
looks like it's fixed. even trying to go to the old link this thread linked to
gets a 403 Forbidden, and some basic searches show fixage

------
donkeyass
for the first time someone did ask me about google alternatives. live search
and yahoo are having the most users sinse ages today..

------
prakash
did google also tweak their spam filter? anyone seeing more emails that would
not normally go to spam being sent to spam?

------
braindead_in
i sympathize with the 'human' who made that error. it might be the lowest
point of his life. or his greatest!

------
mkuhn
It's working again... at least for me

~~~
mkuhn
and the false warning is back...

edit: If I refresh I don't see the false warning every fifth time or so. This
happens on the .com and .ch page. It seems they are pushing out an update that
hasn't reached all servers yet.

------
ralph
It's .co.uk .de .fr and others too.

~~~
mkuhn
it's also google.com

If you enter google.com/ncr anywhere around the world you get to the
google.com Version, which often sports more features. By adding the ncr (no
country redirect) you don't get forwarded to country specific sites.

------
mixmax
Seems like it is fixed now. www.google.com

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parenthesis
They've fixed it. That was quick.

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abless
Oh dear, that'll hurt...

------
Nassrat
YEAH WTF, I hated google for half an hour there.

