Why is Google SERPS sending me to the wrong website?
Published April 12, 2010I’m going to assume this is a Google thing because I like blaming Google for everything that’s wrong with the web.
Lately when clicking of sites found on Google, I get sent to the wrong website. I’ve noticed this in the past week or two.
Here’s how to repeat the problem I’m seeing.
- I open a new browser session. IE or Firefox. Doesn’t matter.
- I search for something in Google.
- I click on the listing in the SERPs that is NOT an AdWords ad and I’m taken to a completely different site, not the site I clicked on.
- I hit the back button and try it again and this time it goes to the right site.
If I close the browser and do it again, it won’t do it right away. It does do to the wrong website several times a day, but it’s like there’s a timer on it. Like it only does it if it’s more than x number of minutes since the last time it did it.
It’s like a new type of IRRITATING AS F*CK advertising method that’s been rolled out. Has anyone else noticed this? Is it Google or are my browser sessions being hi-jacked by some evil, unknown running-in-the-back-ground program?
UPDATE: I did some more poking around, but this time I searched on “google redirect” and found out is was a damn trojan causing the redirects! In fact, I had several of them. McAfee didn’t find them.
MajorGeeks.com said to run SUPERAntiSpyware. I ran SuperAntiSpyware, the portable version and here’s what it found…
See those last four entries? It was one of them. After it removed them and I rebooted, I can now type in online forms and ESPECIALLY in WordPress, without the keyboard skipping letters. That was like a thirsty man finding water because I live my entire day in WordPress.
I’m really upset about McAfee not finding it anything. That sort of lowers my faith in it.
So, how did I get these little buggers? I think it may have something to do with the fact that I disabled Vista’s User Account Control some months ago because of the EXCESSIVE alerts it throws every time I want to download or run something. So I did it to myself. I turned UAC back on and won’t be screwing around with that again.
In the meantime, do I owe Google an apology? Mmmm, not at this time. I still have plenty of other things to blame them for.
2nd UPDATE: I ran MalwareBytes after that and it found a whole bunch more. And after all this, now my keyboard skipping letters problem is gone, too!
3rd UPDATE Oct 13, 2010: Thought I’d post this update. PCMagazine has a new article about this Google Redirect. Norton wasn’t catching it either.
3 Responses to Why is Google SERPS sending me to the wrong website?
It seems strange that McAfee couldn’t spot the bugger. Oh you should not have disabled Vista’s User Account Control. Any ways, I hope that in any future event, the software would trace the viruses. Now, talking of owing an apology to Google, well you may avoid for time being.
You should try a combination of security applications for all your internet security problems. I use an internet security anti-virus system along with Trojan Remover and Malwarebytes Antispyware. These two amazing applications clean your system thoroughly and do not let the system get infected. I can easily say you can trust this combination along with an internet security to protect your system from any kind of threat.
McAfee can never be trusted to find all the malware and clean it properly. There are many other solutions which offer better protection, that too at a more economical cost. So its better to switch AVs than to ‘hope’ that McAffe gets it act together next time (Version).
Reading this post made me realize how much Google is slowly but surely replacing MS as the Evil IT Giant. Microsoft is no longer the biggest company also (Apple)
End of days as we know it ??!