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Home > 2009 > October > 15

Known Issues, October 15, 2009

Tips for avoiding bogus ads in search results

By Dennis O'Reilly

Our Oct. 8 Top Story by contributing editor Susan Bradley reported that Google, Bing, and other indexes need to do a better job of policing the ads that appear alongside the search results.

Immediately after Susan's story was published, describing malware ads that appeared alongside queries on security terms like malwarebytes, such ads temporarily disappeared.

Reader Bill Tone monitored the search-engine results after Susan's article came out:

• "Apparently, Google and Bing managers have read Susan's article also. As of now — 10/8/2009 5:32 a.m. EDT — neither Google nor Bing shows any sponsored search results when I search for the Malwarebytes Anti-Malware utility (see attached pics). Isn't that interesting!"
  

Figure 1. Soon after last week's Top Story appeared, Google removed the malware ads that previously had accompanied results of Malwarebytes searches.

As Figure 1 shows, the sponsored links were indeed missing from Google's results for a search of Malwarebytes Anti-Malware utility. Unfortunately, this policy may have lasted for only a brief time.

When I repeated the search earlier this week, a sponsored link to AntiMalware-Software.com appeared on the right. (See Figure 2.) That program is listed by the Precise Security Threat Center and other security sites as malware that attempts to hijack your system and hold it for ransom.


Figure 2. Unfortunately, the malware ads made a comeback in the Google search results very soon thereafter.

Whether the disappearance and reappearance of the malware ads in Google search results is a policy decision or a coincidence is uncertain. But what I know is that, as of Monday afternoon, similar ads didn't show up when I conducted the same search using Bing.

Ad-blocking browser add-ons are one solution

Several readers suggested using ad blockers to eliminate altogether the threat posed by malware ads. Clive R. Taylor takes ad-blocking one step further:

• "I don't see any of the sponsored links when I do the same searches in Firefox and IE 8. I run Adblock Plus in FF, so that might explain that absence, but I run no extras nor add-ons in IE. However, I do use OpenDNS. Is that what is preventing them from showing up on my screen? If so, I think it might be worth mentioning again in next week's newsletter the virtues of using OpenDNS."
  

• "I applaud Susan Bradley's Top Story of 2009-10-08, 'Sponsored search results lead to malware.' With each passing month, Windows Secrets is becoming a more and more effective watchdog to keep the giant corporations on their toes. I wish these companies had the moral discipline to do this themselves, but when that is not the case, media organizations like WS play a critical role on behalf of the consumer. I will try to contribute more $ for my Windows Secrets subscription in the future. Thank you so much."
  

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All Windows Secrets articles posted on 2009-10-15:

Bonus	Migrating to Windows 7 has never been so easy
Introduction	Public deprived of WS site for two boring days
Top Story	Press delete: the risk of outsourcing your data
Known Issues	Tips for avoiding bogus ads in search results
Wacky Web Week	Finally! An effective way to reduce traffic
Langalist Plus	Remove a persistent Trojan once and for all
Best Software	How to find out whether a file is infected
Patch Watch	Windows GDI+ update prevents Web-image attacks
	(Show all articles on a single page)