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Microsoft Says It Has Resolved an Issue With Bing Which Was Causing It To Push Malware When Users Searched for Chrome (howtogeek.com)

Posted by msmash on from the what-in-the-world dept.

Chris Hoffman, writing for How To Geek: You launch Edge on your new PC, search for "download Chrome," and click the first result headed to "google.com" on Bing. You're now on a phishing website pushing malware, disguised to look like the Chrome download page. That's the story Gabriel Landau tells on Twitter. We were able to reproduce this problem, although it doesn't happen every time. Usually, you'll end up seeing an ad for "https://www.google.com". That goes to the real Chrome download page, and everything is fine. But, sometimes, you'll see an ad for "google.com". Guess what -- that doesn't actually go to Google.com. This ad was created by a scammer and goes elsewhere. Microsoft is apparently not verifying the web address the advertisement actually goes to. Bing is letting this advertisement to lie to people. Microsoft says it has resolved the issue.

7 of 101 comments (clear)

  1. (Probably) no underhandedness here by hcs_$reboot · · Score: 4, Informative

    Reading the title, my first thought was "fix the issue.. sure!". But it's actually not unlikely that Bing, being much less involved in Chrome than Google..., might render search results not in a way the user expects. Morale of the story: don't always click the first result - or at least check it!

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    Slashdot, fix the reply notifications... You won't get away with it...
    1. Re:(Probably) no underhandedness here by phantomfive · · Score: 4, Funny

      I just checked......now the first search result links to spyware :)

      --
      "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  2. Edge has replaced Internet Explorer by jfdavis668 · · Score: 5, Funny

    As the best web browser to use to download a better web browser.

    1. Re:Edge has replaced Internet Explorer by laffer1 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Edge is decent at rendering web pages. However, a few misconfigured network settings and it can't even load pages on some networks. If you allow "discovery" on networks behind pfsense, it can't work properly.

      The other issue is that it has far less ad-ons than Firefox or chrome.

      Finally, Opera is Chromium. Chrome is Chromium. They are the same browser with a different UI. It's all blink.

      --
      MidnightBSD: The BSD for Everyone
  3. So MS finally admits it? by El+Cubano · · Score: 4, Funny

    Microsoft Says It Has Resolved an Issue With Bing Which Was Causing It To Push Malware When Users Searched for Chrome (emphasis added)

    Glad to see MS finally admitting the true nature of Edge.

    You know, after all, that the first step on the road to recovery is admitting you have a problem.

  4. I am not sure if this helped MS or not. by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Sure Microsoft is in competition with Google for both its Search Engine and its browser. But having Bing go to a Malware site, which infects your Windows PC. Makes Windows, Edge, and Bing all look bad, as well as Microsoft for trying to be underhanded.

    With all the attention to prevent Google Chrome from taking more Edge share away I would expect Bings relationship with searching for a Google Product should be tightly controlled and managed, and mostly in a way to insure fairness and get good sets of data. I would expect the #1 result would be from Microsoft Telling you why Edge is So much better then chrome. But as #2 it should be googles download.

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    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  5. The only thing Edge is good for... by GeLeTo · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ... is downloading Chrome. Oh, wait...