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Google Search Flagging Everything As Potentially Harmful

Posted by Soulskill on from the minor-problem dept.

dowlingw writes "It looks like for the moment at least, all Google results are failing the malware checks and being listed with a warning 'This site may harm your computer,' including all pages from Google themselves. Users trying to visit pages at search results will only be able to proceed via manual manipulation of the search result link to remove the Google click-through (which is also broken). Until Google fixes this bug, it looks Google web search is useless." Update: 01/31 at 15:16 GMT by SS: The problem now appears to be fixed.
Update: 01/31 at 22:01 GMT by KD : Google has now posted an explanation, apologizing and taking responsibility for the "human error" that led to the problem.

6 of 407 comments (clear)

  1. Not a common carrier by mangu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This feature, no doubt implemented with good intentions, show the perils of the nanny state so many politicians all over the world are proposing. Why should Google police the internet?

    They should act like the phone company used to be, a common carrier just sending through the information, for better or worse.

    Of course, I understand that Google isn't an ISP, so the "common carrier" principle does not apply. They are just providing a service for me, without charging me directly. But the principle is the same, if I wanted some sort of protection from malware there are many places where I can get it by asking, I do not need to be protected involuntarily.

    1. Re:Not a common carrier by ScuzzMonkey · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I think what it really shows the perils of is piling additional "features" on top of a perfectly good product until you've ruined what made it good in the first place and turned it into worthless crap. Search should be simple: give the user what they are looking for. All the other extraneous stuff they are loading it up with is bound to interfere with that basic requirement at some point.

      I see this in mature development projects all the time. At some point, people get a pretty good product working, but they can't repress the urge to continue "improving" it... it can be boredom, wow factor for marketing, or just plain stupidity, but few people or organizations seem to know when to quit messing with a product that already works well.

      --
      No relation to Happy Monkey
    2. Re:Not a common carrier by LihTox · · Score: 3, Insightful

      but most people don't know (and don't want to know) how to protect themselves.

      And furthermore, viruses don't just hurt the people whose computers they infect; infected computers are used for illegal activities of spam or just to infect other people. It becomes a matter of "public health", like requiring kids to get their vaccinations--it's not just for their benefit, it's to prevent epidemics as well.

  2. Re:Has anyone considered... by Animaether · · Score: 3, Insightful

    yes - you just did. There's got to be an award for that :)

    was that a serious question?

  3. Re:Broke the internets! by Shakrai · · Score: 4, Insightful

    http://flickr.com/photos/tonyaustin/3241509252/ [flickr.com]

    Maybe Google is just flagging itself as harmful because it knows that Google doesn't respect your privacy ;)

    (Sad thing is I'm only half joking....)

    --
    I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
    We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
  4. Re:Failsafe by thebjorn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    At least it failsafes to every site being flagged. Much better than it just letting people get malware ridden sites.

    You must be kidding? 15 minutes of the entire planet being without our precious Google is *much* better than some stupid yahoo getting a virus from his pr0n site? Not to me, at least...