Google, please stop redirecting my search results
For a few weeks now Google has been passing all the links on their search results through a redirect. This only happens on my main PC and is probably some kind of experiment by Google.
There are so many times when I want to cut and paste a link from the search results into an email or blog post and all that happens is I get a huge long url. In the end I have to visit the web page and copy the url from the address bar – its getting pretty annoying.
So, please can somebody at Google turn this feature off for me. You know my IP address by now, if not you can probably find out.
Hopefully this will turn up on one of Matt Cutts reputation monitoring searches and he can sort it out.
Post category: Google, Search Tweet
Patrick Altoft is Director of Search at Branded3, a Leeds SEO & Digital Agency specialising in SEO, Web Design, Development & Social Media.
Comments
Read the 47 comments below, or add your own!
I thought that was annoying myself. Like you said it makes it difficult to copy urls from Google results. Of course Yahoo is the same way.
Guess is their way to know what did you click in order to store it on their database
Anyway, it’s better to “Mark” with the mouse and then copy-paste… Else, “Copying Shortcut” will make you get that strange google string as URL
Regards from Spain
Paquito.
http://paquito4ever.blogspot.com
Delete your Google cookies and it should be gone. Also Google does this when you enable the search history.
Hey! The same happen to me. I tried deleting cookies, but nothing happened.
I am sick and tired of businesses deciding FOR ME what it is I really want or need. Why not try assuming I want what I asked for? I have trashed my Google toolbars on everything, and I will no longer use Google. Wake up Google!
Yea…drives me crazy cant get rid of it. I might give in and try a Mac if this stuff keeps happening.
No luck with the Mac hon! I am sitting here on my Mac trying to figure out why every bloody search I do in Google is redirected to the most random places. I mean completely unrelated topics, and to add insult to injury I have to hit back many times to get back to my original search page or I will be redirected to another redirect. To rub even more salt in the wounds my little brother is sitting right next to me (literally) on his Mac and is not having the same problem no matter where he searches. We tested by googling the same places over and over again.
Sigh; it is really annoying
My new Mac is redirecting the same way. Not always tho’. I’m afraid its a bug altho’ the macsters swear it aint so!
This has started happening to me on my mac too and i’m pretty sure it’s some kind of bug. I have no idea how to get rid of it so if anyone knows a remedy please let us know!
its not google, its a worm thats affecting both google and yahoo, it’s been happening for me also.
I keep getting redirected when I attempt to search anything on Google, Yahoo, and Metecrawler. It is either one of two things. Either there is a mass bug, or worm out penetrating many different computers or Google and the rest are being hacked. Someone who wants to step-up, provide us with information that we can actually use to solve this frustrating situation.
Here guys, a great link that got rid of it for me. Mac users only though. gl.
http://www.macworld.com/article/60823/2007/10/trojanhorse.html
I am REALLY pissed off right now.
Trying to help my friend in USA research the best product to buy, but apparently that’s not possible, since Google won’t let me see GOOGLE.COM results, even when I repeatedly, specifically select that I want worldwide and/or America specific results.
I swear to god.. I understand doing it as default, but to REFUSE to let you change even after you choose the results you WANT? I have only noticed this recently, but when I am looking it up apparently it’s happened to people as early as March 2006 ????
I am annoyed beyond belief. I know what I am looking for. Do NOT try to force me to live in my own town. If I wanted to buy something in my own city I would walk out of my house and into TOWN, not go on the WORLD WIDE WEB looking for it.
[Yahoo started this too recently, but thankfully when you find the tiny "yahoo.com" button it lets you go to the regular site]
This is a trojan or virus on your system. And, it has nothing to do with google or yahoo wanting you to see ad content.
This is a solution which you can try to get rid of it. When you open the website,open it in new tab or new window, you won’t get redirected to adware websites. This method can reduce the problem to some extent.
This is how i solved it:
When you get redirected, go to View then Privary Report…
You will find a couple of sites, the abc one and possibly another one (in my case monstermarketplace. on the next column you will find that their cookies are accepted. Simply right click the site and select ‘Always Reject cookies from this site’. Do this for the other unwanted site.
Your problems should then be resolved!
Solution:
You simply need to download Spybot to fix this problem. Salman is right, it is a trojan or virus and it has nothing to do with google or yahoo. It is your computer that has virus. Download Spybot Search&Destroy from this link below will fix the problem.
http://download.cnet.com/1770-20_4-0.html?query=spybot&tag=srch&searchtype=downloads&filterName=platform%3DWindows&filter=platform%3DWindows
It is not just Google. Yahoo is doing the same thing! Is there a browser that does not do this. This started happening to me a week ago. I can’t get to where I need to get!! I am so frustrated!
No this is not a trojan/virus. Google just wants to know what we are clicking on after we get the results, so it knows how accurate its results are.
It is annoying though, ESPECIALLY if I want to right click on a PDF file to save it. Then I actually have to load the PDF file into the browser, and we all know how the PDF files frequently stall or even freeze the browser. Not cool.
oh my god you people are bad,
it’s not google and its not yahoo or any other search engine for that matter,
you need to get anitvirus and spyware installed and do a FULL scan Avast is good/recommended-free
i started to get redirected on feb 8th 2010 and i don’t blame any search engine
DO NOT GO TO THIS SITE
fovoritosx1.com (( YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED ))
google and yahoo do this on my pc……but if searched etc with msn.com….bing, it does not get redirected…..malwarebyte and avast did not help me…..
if you look in
c:\windows\system32\
you might see a small file if i remember its called 0034, it is NOT in a folder but it is in system32, i had it and deleted it then all was ok, apart from that,,,,
i suggest have a full version of your spyware antivirus and keep it updated etc…
This is not a virus. Not everyone sees it because it is experimental at Google. If you right click and “copy shortcut” when you paste this you’ll see that it’s still a google.com address which immediately redirects to the site you expected. I guess this it to help G track more accurately who’s using search results. But it is VERY annoying!
However, if you’re being redirected to totally unrelated sites that you weren’t expecting – that’s a virus!
There are redirect trojans that take over your DNS and use rootkit technologies to mask themselves on your system. Just because your browser says something.google.com doesn’t mean it’s a google site, it means your system is compromised.
Know what you’re talking about before you talk.
I’d tell you how to easily fix it, but then I couldn’t watch the fun of all the people here wallowing in their own ignorance. Blissful, no?
Ok guys i have had this problem for so long and i think that i have fixed my problem… for now
Ok so what i do is go to seach settings in the top of the google website. it should go to preferences. just sit there for like 10 sec then just press save preferences. (note: u do not change anything in the preferences, u just click save.) i know it sounds dumb but it really works, so i hope i helped 
For me it works when you search on Google or whatever and then right click to open a site and click Open in the drop down menu rather than just double click…it seems to go directly to the site you are actually looking 95% of the time….Good luck
I've check, re-check and triple checked my Mac for the 'redirecting' trojan and I do not have it, my DNS is correct and no extra ones are added. I deleted my cookies, went to google and things worked fine for 4 or 5 clicks, then it started to redirect again. No matter if I opened it in a new tab or new window it would redirect me through http://results5.google.com to something completely unrelated. I often right click and open several search results in new tabs, but it still redirects.
When I left-click on a google search result it opens in a new window always through http://results5.google.com and then to a random site, even to a different search engines. Usually after the first redirect it will no longer redirect me when I click on the search result link again.
This does NOT happen when I type in a direct url, only when I go to a site through google's search results.
I have noticed that Google has now been taking me to https://www.google.com which is a beta site for the Google SSL, and it does stop it from redirecting.
It's extremely annoying.
Apparently the problem lies within the wireless routers.
It IS a Virus it encompasses ALL search engines, a spyware removal tool may or MAY NOT remove it, but whats the point it will return to your computer within a matter of hours, or mere minutes if your browsing ANY web page AT ALL. Ive read through countless forums, countless i know it all computer techs have told COUNTLESS poor victims of this redirection virus to download this, run a scan post me the log, they look through the log, ok download this this and this. show me the logs. they post the logs. Ok download this and run it, the virus should be gone. Keep in mind this whole process takes about 8 hours from start to finish and after the virus gets removed it finds its way back onto your machine within MINUTES. So what am i supposed to do every time that this happens, find another forum where there not annoyed by me yet and go through the whole week long process of posting logs , downloading new scanning progs, and waiting for them to read the log so they can tell me to do the same thing ive already done? We need to find out where this virus is finding its way in, its not unique to IE, Firefox, chrome. It covers them aLL. No one browser is immune. Its not in your cookies. Ive deleted them all countless times and on Firefox i stopped it from accepting cookies at all. The Virus returns. I dont even click the links anymore, i copy / paste the actual web adress from the search results page right into my adress bar. This is fine except most of the time the entire web adress is not shown on the search results page, and therefore i just have to hope that whatever website i want has a short enough link to be displayed in the 50 char limit field box under the description of the web page. This is what my internet surfing has been reduced to and its not just mine. Countless others are in my shoes, except most of them think its THEM that are the cause, well i tell you my friends its not in your lack of knowledge of the most up to date freeware malware removal tool, and it is CERTAINLY not because you havent shelled out 60 dollars for the new top of the line anti virus software (although something tells me that in about a year or two, that is what will be required. Think about it, no way are they gonna let us have our internet back without molesting our wallets. Virus have been out for a long time. After they are removed usually there is an immunize feature on most freeware spyware removal progs that lets your computer recognize the virus before it gets it again, similar to the immune system in the human body with a virus, (cant catch chiken pox twice). Immunize is useless with this beast, and as ive sayd around 10 times now. Scans and removal is turning into a useless process (at least with this particular problem) Ive seen alot viruses go through my or numerous friends' systems. Something with this much power, this much access is almost unheard of. Viruses usually have a way of getting in, such as weaknesses in the security for IE. Spyware actually was embedding itself in the actual code of internet explorer so while you were running the program the code was telling it to go behind your back and visit this link, and that link, and download this file, and that file. Still, that virus had a WAY of getting in. Its WAY was IE's weakness in their security, and was fixed and implimented with the next release, or if important enough a free update was released and downloaded at log on. Something smells of corperate involvement with this one. After reading the posts and cries for help on this issue dating very far back, why has a fix not been released by one of the major companies that are being used like pawns to move this virus from machine to machine , and hell, even to operate. This virus doesnt have legs without google or yahoo, and doesnt have a mouth without the algorithms used to provide results for your searches. How are these companies turning a blind eye? Ive not seen ONE "official" announcement on this problem from one of the main companies it affects. I bought a brand new computer, and seriously, and literally, and i do mean literally, right out of the box i powered it up, visited http://www.google.com, searched and was REDIRECTED. This happened just two days ago. Someone who is a hell of a lot smarter than me please, i beg you please, find out how this virus works and find a way to defend against it. Most people with adequate intelligence are running people around with about 8 different programs scanning, and checking logs for 10 hours just to provide a 3 minute bandaid to this problem. Will you be the special one who saves us all from the brink of despair? The edge of the black death approaches, Wield your antivirus sword and smighteth down this virus for the good of us all!
Ive got the same problem its been happening to me for a month or so now and is getting really aggravating i almost wanna take my computer and through it out my window but i restrained my self lol. I was told to disable 3rd party cookies that worked shortly i then disabled all cookies and im still being redirected to random websites! What should i do??? Please help email me at atrs92@gmail.com
I had the google redirect problem on my macbook pro, and as suggested before I deleted the cookies from safari and the redirection problem was solved. hope this helps anyone on a mac
I am going to try some of the solutions offered in this blog.
I also use a Mac and have been using Firefox for ages. The websites I have tried to access have been through Firefox, using Google as my search engine. I tried the same websites on Safari and have had no problem at all (yet). Maybe not enough usage has passed for it have started in Safari yet but so far so good.
My problem is that with loads of websites I get re-directed to a blank screen and am being told that the search engine is 'waiting for google-analytics.com'. Unsurprisingly enough, google-analytics.com never arrives…
It is massively frustrating and potentially quite irresponsible, given that the last time it happened I was trying to contact NHS Direct because my baby is quite ill and I needed a number and some advice. I will do whatever is necessary to stop it – if this means using a different search engine then so be it. If this does derive from Google, as an experiment, which has been suggested here, then they run a huge risk of annoying too many people who will inevitably go elsewhere for their information.
http://results5.google.com is a subdomain. This subdomain can't be resolved by the DNS-Server of your ISP. But if you leave the the bad DNS-Server 85.255.115.26 and 85.255.112.25 and then try to resolve the domain you get also an IP of http://results5.google.com which is 67.210.15.3. If you try to find out who is the owner of this IP you find out it is the company "Internet Path" in Albany, NY 12203.
That means you have a DNS-Server from Ukraine which forward you at a american IP.
Remarkable is that "Internet Path" is the former UkrTeleGroup Ltd. which was known to host a lot of DNS server, to redirect Web traffic.
Have a look at the report from Washington Post: http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009…
I found the trojan on Mac.
If somebody want to delete the package, it works just on Mac's.
It is in a package install.pkg. When installing this package, this package will install a plugin at the path "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/QuickTime.xpt".
This plugin will finally install also a cron-job.
What you can do in the Terminal:
1. Delete "/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/QuickTime.xpt", with the command:
sudo rm /Library/Internet Plug-Ins/QuickTime.xpt
2. Delete the cronjob. Before deleting the cronjob, be sure this is the only cronjob root have:
sudo crontab -l
If the output shows you a cornjob (only this cronjob) with QuickTime.xpt in the path, this cronjob must be deleted. Do it with:
sudo crontab -r
3. To be sure you don't have any packages which contain part of the software, look after install.pkg with the command:
ls -lsa /Library/Receipts/install.pkg
If the command list you a directory "install.pkg" with a content, delete with the command:
sudo rm -rf /Library/Receipts/install.pkg
4. Change all your passwords: Router, computer, paypal, and so on …
Hey calm down everyone. I believe the problem can be either:
DNS on your machine is hacked and is not set to be obtained automatically. (usingDHCP)
Change the settings on your network card properties and do ipconfig /release then ipconfig /renew at CMD prompt
Or
Router has got hacked and the DNS settings are wrong..possibly because router has default password. Reset to factory settings and change admin password. Don't allow browser to save password.
I do not know how they get changed but I understand Malwarebytes removes the cause.
Trouble is you will prob not get to any fixes as the bug stops you accessing them.
Good luck, Jim
Interestingly, the only site it doesn't redirect is Wikipedia! (For me, anyway)
I am glad to know I computer challenged self is not the only one having problems. according to blogs I need to delete cookies, delete google toolbar and start all over. Ok I will give it a try. thanks
I don’t know if this might help but when you are using google or what ever search engine right click and select open in a new tag or new window, this stops the page from redirecting on my internet.
Go to webmasterworld.com/forum21/9449.htm It discribes what to do.
Nothing to do here it seems, just change the default search engine to google and delete the web search option
If you use Google image search only I found that clicking on the image of the result of a search goes straight to the site…no redirect yet.
The other way is to highlight the web address and right click; it asks if you want to go to the site…then if you do, it will.
his worked for me..
Click on Tools and Manage add-ons, then on the page that pops up click on Search Providers, Google should be shown, click on this and at the bottom of results look for Search suggestions, if enabled is shown click on disable suggestions that will change it and should stop redirects..
Tools -> Internet Options -> Security -> Custom Level set “Allow META-Refresh” to disable
Hi, I’ve had the same problem, can’t figure how to get rid of it
tried tools-internet options – security – custom level and disabled allow meta refresh.
this worked for the first try…second try was redirected. Frustrating!
I used to use Internet Explorer, but switched to Mozilla Firefox after Google and Yahoo started redirecting me. Now Firefox is having the same problem. I’m using Safari and so far it’s been fine. Maybe you could try using Safari?
I found a solution on another forum that involved a corrupted file in the C:\windows\system32\ and a few files down that I’ve forgotten. You could try searching it up. I found it, then went to a Windows help page which mentioned the problem. They offered this service where you could click on a button and they would scan your c:\windows\system32\ file, find the malignant codes and delete them. I was so happy that it worked – on a spur, I clicked every single search result and there were no problems! However, the problem came back within an hour.
I have a virus detector installed. It told me the virus was gone, and it was, but again it came back.
I think the problem is like omagodf said – that the problem is with the search engines – or maybe like Paper said – that the problem might be in the wireless routers. Both of them are equally possible for me.
Anyhow, the redirecting is really bad. According to the URL bar, first I get to some site like ufflgd.com/anogaoe_1lojgjpog3_fjaaaagkijel – basically, not a normal website. From there, I get redirected again to a site that sounds like a legitimate site, like bookusatravels.com. And then yet another redirect, to some site with the title as ‘Free Hello Kitty!’. And all because I clicked en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hello_world_program.
When I copy and paste the URLs, I’m told that no such site exists. This leads me to believe that they’re temporary. Also, the ‘redirecting to’ bar at the bottom shows IP addresses instead of URLs and says ‘connecting to’ instead of ‘waiting for’.
Occasionally it even happens when I copy-and-paste the URL into the URL bar or open a new tab/window, as some have suggested. Other times it redirects me to the Google homepage.
Incredibly, I haven’t heard of any other friends who have the problem.
Please share: what sites do you get redirected to, have you any friends who have the same problem, how have to tried to resolve the problem and for how long did the redirecting stop?
Here is what I did to stop it all
I.E users go to tools and hit internet options…go to advance and hit restore advance settings and then you can reset internet explorer settings
Also On mozilla I have changed my settings to accept cookies and then I unchecked accept third party cookies. I also hit not to redirect but I will have to find that place again…I will post where it is later.
On firefox go to tools then click privacy and then hit accept cookies from other sites and then uncheck accept cookies from third parties…its working for me sooo far…take care…Sam
Geeez, If I wanted to get into google.co.uk I would just type that like we are used to typing anything country specific! But I’m typing google.com! Respect man!