Sponsor sites first 4 results on google search

[zeus]

I was at a friends house and made a quick search for my site and saw the first 4 results where absolutly not on topic, it looked like sponsored results, then I made another search the same thing there.

Now I made another search and everything looks normal, maybe they are testing sponsor links at top like Altavista. This is just the beginng I think, of the destruction of the great search tool, just wait till they go on NASDAQ then alot of people has things to say and they just want the stock to riese.

zeus

[Telco_Guy]

Sounds like they have a trojan or spyware on their system. Try running Ad-aware or another anti spyware program.

[hutcheson]

Yes: this isn't Google, but there are spyware programs that do just what you describe.

[Chndru]

This is just the beginng I think, of the destruction of the great search tool, just wait till they go on NASDAQ then alot of people has things to say and they just want the stock to riese.

I wonder, why so many whisper conspiracy everytime they think of google ;)

[filo]

Google has started down the road towards complete commercialization. In essence, I think google has peaked and it can really only go downhill from here as they put more emphasis on turning a profit and less on inovation and user experience.

[PatrickDeese]

Google has started down the road towards complete commercialization. In essence, I think google has peaked and it can really only go downhill from here as they put more emphasis on turning a profit and less on inovation and user experience.

GMail...
Adsense...
Adwords...

"Google" entered the English language as a widely-recognized verb.

Maybe you should go "Altavista [altavista.com]" some factual information about the original post, or perhaps you would get better results if you chose to Google [google.com] it...

Bitter webmasters aside, I would say that G does a pretty good job of bringing up relevant results, and I haven't seen any evidence that they've stopped innovating.

[Powdork]

Regardless of how you feel about Google or how many black helicopters you see whirling overhead, one fact remains. They won't put up sponsored links of any sort without labeling them as such.

[Gory]

>they put more emphasis on turning a profit and less
>on innovation and user experience.

And why should Google put more emphasis on innovation and user experience and less on turning a profit?

I wonder when people here will stop "demanding" that Google will do for them things for nothing. Hello, Google is not a charity, it is a business entity that is after profit, and rightly so.

One should understand that the purpose of the free search service is to serve the money contributing elements of Google and not vise versa. It is funny how people here "exploit" Google for their earnings but attack it for its commerciality.

[netnerd]

I had a spyware thing happen me which did this also - spybot or adaware will fix it.

[SyntheticUpper]

In essence, I think google has peaked

My Yahoo referals go up, up and away!

If you find anything related to C*olWeb search, search for CWShredder - it's the only app that can bust this really nasty bit of spyware.

[zeus]

I do use search and destroy and Ad-aware on my own system, but I dont think he used it, so it must be the problem. I diddent know that was possible for a spyware to be listed on Google that way, the internet is not a happy place anymore, you cant even let kids surf freely on the net, but OK we have to learn how to handle all the info on the net, the bad with the good.

I still am scared about Google getting listed, but thats another topic.

zeus

[SyntheticUpper]

zeus - I see you're a senior member? Are you zeus, or have you logged on at zeus's computer?

[raptorix]

I had this too, it was some stupid spyware tool, didn't know how it came on my system. But the bad thing was that Adaware did not Recognise it, in the end i used Pestcontrol which found the problem.

[hutcheson]

Ad-aware, etc., are only palliatives. The problem, at heart, has nothing whatsoever to do with Google--Yahoo could be targeted just as easily (and if MSN were being targeted, nobody on earth would ever notice.) Google is the victim. The perpetrator is "Security is job aleph-1" Microsoft, and their Infernal Exploder.

Get a real browser. Get a real firewall, and use it to block IE from ever accessing the internet. You won't have problems like this.

[GoogleGuy]

I concur--sounds like scumware on your friend's machine.

[zeus]

SyntheticUpper, Hmm Im zeus, I dont understand the question, why.

zeus

[IITian]

Or you might have initially used Yahoo or MSN mistakenly thinking it was Google. It happens.

[zeus]

Thats a 100% no, I only use Yahoo for email and directory and Google as search tool, sometimes wisenut.

zeus

[ThomasB]

do searcher on Datacenter IPs bring up the same?

sometimes wisenut

Don't use a search engine except Google. ;)

[zeus]

ThomasB, the problem was a spyware, so I have installed all the anti spyware on the other computer, because the other folks computer had non, I think about 95% of all computer users dont realy know what spyware is.

zeus