Suspected PayPal Hackers Seek Deal To Stay Out Of Prison
Did A Google Earth Mistake Cause A Couple's Brutal Murder?
Google gets overprotective, flags whole internet as malware
When you conduct a search, you may notice "This site may harm your computer" warnings under the headlines of each search result. And when you click a link to visit a site, there's a good chance you'll see a window warning you to go back to where you came from.
Google seems to be in the process of correcting the error. A few minutes ago we couldn't find a link that wasn't labeled as malware, but now a search for Download Squad fortunately comes up clean. But when a company as large and influential as Google indiscriminately labels sites as dangerous, even for just a few minutes, it's not pretty.
Update: And the crisis seems to be over. But it lasted long enough for Download Squad reader Kewal Shah to capture a funny image which you can see after the break.
Update 2: Google has issued an explanation. Basically Google maintains a list of dangerous sites, and that list gets updated from time to time. Today it was updated, and one of the values added to the list this morning was "/" which covers, you know, the whole internet.
Comments
17
Subscribe to commentsChrisJan 31st 2009 10:48AM
Oh, good thing it was just a mistake. For a second there, I thought Google was attempting a electronic coup to take over the internet.
Muffin_manJan 31st 2009 10:52AM
Haha that picture is priceless.
kewsvnetJan 31st 2009 11:00AM
thank u :)
EugenijusJan 31st 2009 11:40AM
One more picture from Lithuanian google version:
http://youlikeit.lt/files/2009/01/google-grybas.jpg
robJan 31st 2009 12:41PM
I was able to grab a shot of most of the Google products listed as malware: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangejack/3240712047/
Rob WilliamsJan 31st 2009 12:12PM
I was able to grab a screenshot of most of the Google products with malware notes: http://www.flickr.com/photos/orangejack/3240712047/
BrianJan 31st 2009 12:12PM
Was is a bug or was google hacked?
ryan10adJan 31st 2009 12:13PM
I find it ironic, but with text expander I somehow searched for Google at google.com instead of Gmail. Even Google blocked it's self, so this is probably a botched install / inside hacker (guy with a pink slip?)
emaxJan 31st 2009 3:24PM
i knew something was up....
ButtersJan 31st 2009 3:24PM
So Google explains the error on their blog, here:
http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html
It seem an update to the list of harmful sites provided to Google included the parameter "/", which expands to include all URLs.
In Googles words:
"Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes."
Radical DreamerJan 31st 2009 3:29PM
On the Internet, no one can hear you scream....
birthday is 1990Jan 31st 2009 5:03PM
Should have done a google search for google...
kewsvnetJan 31st 2009 8:01PM
have a look at the second screenshot above...lol
jbjg24mJan 31st 2009 5:10PM
I JUST GOOGLED MYSELF AND IT MADE ME GIGGLE!!
RHFeb 6th 2009 9:40PM
I saw that happening earlier! I thought it was the oddest thing, too! What I didn't realize was that it was coming from Google... I was trying some new Firefox extensions at the time (especially Interclue - awesome btw :-) and really thought it was just the extension causing the error!
Good job w/ the screenshot!! That even crossed my mind, but again, I didn't think it was Google itself... so who would've cared??
EthanFeb 1st 2009 10:28AM
This quite accurately demonstrates the need for a 'continue' button on these pages, as I can Imagine a few users just gave up during this time. It was quite amusing.
Hamman SamuelFeb 2nd 2009 9:47AM
8-| Wao, and I thought I had misconfigured my proxy server or some worm had gotten into my PC. Its a relief that it wasn't just me!