Odd thing when I Google Walmart

Joined
Apr 27, 2010
Messages
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Location
Suburban Washington DC
When I click on the first Walmart listing below,

Google3.jpg


I get all these warnings,

walmart.jpg


When I click on the second one, no problem. Why is Google steering people to a malicious site?
 
The images you've posted are too low-resolution for me to read exactly what's going on there. My **guess** is that the first result, being an ad, may be first routing you through some sort of traffic-monitoring platform and something in that process is setting off alarms with Windows Defender. I cannot read/ see if the first result is sending you (eventually) to walmart.com. It's not unheard of that unscrupulous parties place ads to fraudulently direct visitors in bad faith without Google immediately taking notice and action. And being an ad, it isn't technically Google sending you anywhere - it is a party who's paid substantial money to be placed atop that page for that particular search query.
 
Funny thing, I'm taking a practice test for Comptia A+ 1002, and I have a question that's pretty familiar.

A user is performing a series of Google searches, but
the results pages are displaying links and advertisements
from a different website. This issue occurs each time a
Google search is performed. The same Google search on
a different computer results in a normal Google results
page. Which of the following would resolve this issue?
❍ A. Run the search from Safe Mode
❍ B. Install the latest operating system patches
❍ C. Run a malware removal utility
❍ D. Login as a different user
 
Which of the following would resolve this issue?
❍ A. Run the search from Safe Mode
❍ B. Install the latest operating system patches
❍ C. Run a malware removal utility
❍ D. Login as a different user
Is there an “all of the above” option?
 
Funny thing, I'm taking a practice test for Comptia A+ 1002, and I have a question that's pretty familiar.

A user is performing a series of Google searches, but
the results pages are displaying links and advertisements
from a different website. This issue occurs each time a
Google search is performed. The same Google search on
a different computer results in a normal Google results
page. Which of the following would resolve this issue?
❍ A. Run the search from Safe Mode
❍ B. Install the latest operating system patches
❍ C. Run a malware removal utility
❍ D. Login as a different user
The answer has been malware for the last 20+ years since Explorer and maybe even Netscape was out.
 
Is there an “all of the above” option?
The Answer: C. Run a malware removal utility If the results page of one website is unexpectedly directing to a different site, then the browser has most likely been hijacked by malware. Running a malware removal tool would be the best option of the available choices.

The incorrect answers:
A. Run the search from Safe Mode If malware has infected the system and hijacked the browser, then operating the same browser from Safe Mode would result in the same hijacked page result.
B. Install the latest operating system patches Operating system patches would not commonly remove a malware infection, so the redirection would continue to occur after the OS update.
D. Login as a different user The malware that infected the current user's browser is most likely associated with all users on the system. Authenticating as a different user would not provide any resolution to this browser hijack
 
The Answer: C. Run a malware removal utility If the results page of one website is unexpectedly directing to a different site, then the browser has most likely been hijacked by malware. Running a malware removal tool would be the best option of the available choices.

The incorrect answers:
A. Run the search from Safe Mode If malware has infected the system and hijacked the browser, then operating the same browser from Safe Mode would result in the same hijacked page result.
B. Install the latest operating system patches Operating system patches would not commonly remove a malware infection, so the redirection would continue to occur after the OS update.
D. Login as a different user The malware that infected the current user's browser is most likely associated with all users on the system. Authenticating as a different user would not provide any resolution to this browser hijack
I was going to choose B and C but then thought A and D would help too. Thanks for the detailed explanation on why that would not work. Very good to know.
 
That's by far the best way
Well, I have used Firefox for many years (25+ years since Netscape) but FF has gotten too much bloated (because of too many updates) & I ended up using Chrome (n). Can't use Duckduckgo not powerful enough of a search engine.
 
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