Note: Hey guys, its Chris again. The following article concerns adware and its ability to alter organic search results. Please take the time to share any stories you all may have concerning any interaction between adware and search engines that you may have heard about and/or experienced. Thanks.

Adware and spyware have become, next to viruses, some of the more nefarious types of software on the Internet. However, there has been very little word of adware affecting search engine results, until now.

According to reports at SERoundtable, there have been some victims of an adware variation that causes the infected users browser to display ads appearing as search engine results. The adware program does not manipulate the results themselves, just what listing you see in the browser.

As “Nick W”, said at the SEW forums, “They don’t actually manipulate the G(oogle) results, just what your browser shows you on the page.”

The originating site for the adware in question, as reported by SERoundtable, is webthiswebthat.com. Other current search-related adware programs attempt to drive you to their search presence in order to display the ads they are associated with. However, this particular adware apparently manipulates the results you see in your browser.

I was recently infected with an adware program associated with MySearch. This particular program hijacked my homepage (Google), and redirected me to their “search engine.”

From reading the SERoundtable report, its sounds as if the adware that infected the user in the report operates along similar lines. The difference being instead of redirecting you, the adware alledgely alters the Google results that your browser displays in order to display their own ads, disguised as organic Google results.

The idea of search engine results being altered, masked, or manipulated understandable does not sit well with anyone. Nick adds this thought, “Personally, I think they should start 'getting' these folks, I’m all up for (people) making a buck but messin’ with my search results? I don’t think so.”

If you are infected with this or any other adware, you will need to sanitize your computer in order to prevent the program from affecting you. The most obvious method is to run any of the available adware/spyware removal programs. For the list of effective removal programs, I will be borrowing the list that appeared in the SERoundtable blog:

Spybot - All around good program

BHOdemon - great program for guarding your Internet Explorer Browser Helper Objects (good details too)

Spyware Blaster 3.1

Ad-aware - classic removal program that works well

Spy Sweeper - Supposedly this is the only program that will remove the above spyware on one cleaning.

However, SER’s report indicates that the adware in question is not so easy to remove, “to add insult to injury, once you remove the adware, it will come back next time you start up your computer.”

His list indicates that Spy Sweeper is the most effective tool for removing the offending program. As a rule of thumb, I always employ at least two of the programs mentioned when I scan my box for malicious programs.

I am curious as to whether the other programs will completely remove the offending adware. I posed this question (under wpn noob) in the SEW forum.

Read more about this subject at the SearchEngineWatch forum.

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Former WebProWorld Admin

Cool Web Search is another variant of this browser hijack. CWShredder seems to be the only thing that can remove it completely. Info can be found at http://www.spywareinfo.com and can be downloaded at http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/files/cwshredder.zip

From my experience using it in conjunction with adaware and spybot, everything is cleaned even after reboot.

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Aaron
http://www.themadhat.com

I got a "marketing" phone call last week from a lady with a company who was trying to sell me a keyword that she guaranteed would get me displayed at the top of any Google search on "bikini." When I asked her to explain this, she told me that they were in the process of distributing software that would display my paid ad, resembling an organic Google ad, at the top of any search that included the word they were going to sell me... when I asked how this software was distributed she skirted that and simply told me that two weeks previously they had 10,000 installations and now they had 10 million, so they were growing exponentially. I pretty much told her to take a long walk and she said fine, the next person would buy it, and hung up.

Could these issues be related?

Yes.

CBP

A couple of months back. They have used Kazaa and other file share programs such as this to gain a large distribution. People using file share programs unaware of the motive behind the toolbars have be dupped into thinking that this is something that will help them obtain better search results but instead they are receiving prepaid results for those that have been contacted and signed for the keyword offer. Is this legal? As chelle stated, I told them to take a flying leap but had to argue with the guy first because ... well because I was in a mood ok :-)

The MarketingMama

I came across your post after reading the previous post on the spying Google toolbar... Thought you might find my experience with Spyware Nuker of interest. I clicked a link on Spyware Nuker for more information and got nothing... I thought... Next thing I know I have Spyware Nuker "INSTALLED" on my desktop! Didn't ask permission, didn't warn before installing just downloaded. Messed up McFee... Messed up Outlook... You name it it did it. Needless to say I was very angry! I lost 3 business days trying to get things straightened out and then had to call McFee chat to get the trojan it installed OFF my computer. It was a nightmare albeit a good learning experience.
After all this I went looking on Google search... LOL... about Spyware Nuker and Man Oh Man what a diluge of information. Piece of advice to anyone... Avoid Spyware Nuker like the plague (Which in my opinion it is)... It is "owned" by a company that... Get this... Sells advertising on the internet!
I also found several articles saying the owner of SpyBot is suing Spyware Nuker because the base program in Spyware Nuker is a previous (as in one of the first) versions of SpyBot.
Needless to say I learned a hard but very useful lesson... never download "ANYTHING" onto your computer until you find out from several searches online what they are about and what they actually do when installed.
Needless to say I have a very low opinion of spyware of any kind and personally think any kind of spyware or toolbar that redirects is or should be a criminal offense.
Thanks for letting me vent uhhmm... I meant share :)
Proverbs31Woman