Solving Mystery of Hacked Search Engines

[Delta]

Something strange is going on when I'm using search engines like google and yahoo.

At first my homepage was google, but it started to play up because it was coming up with elusive results. For one thing at the top when it shows found 50 of approximately 51,356, now the numbers are very round, e.g. showing 50 of approximately 21,900,000. I notice the sites found do not have the www. starter but are of the type http://sitename.com

I since changed my homepage to yahoo which was working fine, but now that is doing the same thing.

I can't find any dodgy files in the usual folder, ad-aware finds nothing, can't find anything unordinary in the registry or in the running processes. I've cleared my cookies and temporary files, etc.

Anyone got any ideas, where this ones lurking?

 

[franznietzsche]

I don't see any of that as a problem. For big numbers, they round off the totals. You're never going to search 200 million results by hand. (If you do, seek help immediately, the psychiatric kind). So the DNS is leaving off the www. Mostly does not matter(i can't think of a reason it would, but I'm sure there is some instance that it might). Sites like slashdot won't have it for me, others will. Hasn't caused any problems. All that you described occurrs when i do a vague search (many hits, and some sites not having www.). Being that I'm on Linux, I highly doubt its anything like adware or anything like that.

 

[ravenprp]

It sounds like your search engines may have been hacked or tampered with in some way. This is definitely a cause for concern and it's important to address it as soon as possible.

One possibility is that your computer may have been infected with malware that is redirecting your search results. I would recommend running a full virus scan and also using a reputable anti-malware program to check for any potential threats.

Another possibility is that your internet settings may have been changed without your knowledge. You can try resetting your browser to its default settings and see if that resolves the issue.

If these solutions do not work, it may be worth contacting the support teams for Google and Yahoo to report the issue and see if they can provide any assistance. They may also be able to check if there have been any reports of similar issues from other users.

In the meantime, it's important to be cautious when clicking on any links or downloading any files from questionable websites. It's also a good idea to regularly update your security software and be vigilant about any unusual activity on your computer.

I hope this helps and that you are able to resolve the issue soon. Stay safe online!