Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirect to malware/spam

Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by 20after4 on Friday January 28, 2022 @02:05PM (#30118933)

For quite some time now (many months, maybe a year or two) I've noticed that when searching for something rather obscure, when there aren't many relevant results, google search nonetheless returns pages full of sort-of relevant looking results which all redirect to some form of spam or malware site. The malicious results are always ranked below any legit results but they are almost always there at the end of page one. For sufficiently obscure search then the crap can fill even the majority of the first page.

The commonality is that they seem to keyword stuff obscure keywords and even phrases (possibly by randomly brute forcing or re-combining text fragments into synthesized sentences.) and they all redirect one or more times, prevent the back button from working and land on some kind of suspicious page that is almost certainly hosting some kind of malware. The only way out is to close the tab and start over. I'd imagine things would be much worse without ublock installed.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by ghughes on Friday January 28, 2022 @04:13PM (#30120436)

I've been noticing something similar happening with GitHub issue threads. Spam sites like githubmemory.com are frequently ranking higher than GitHub itself, and sometimes GitHub doesn't even show up at all, even with a specific search term that appears in an issue thread for a popular repo.

The cynic in me can see good reasons for both Google and Microsoft to be okay with this.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by prox on Friday January 28, 2022 @05:32PM (#30121367)

I have been DuckDuckGo 100% completely the last month and from these messages I am super happy I did. Google is tanking fast. Even a general public of r/askreddit noticed, with a huge thread and similar experiences. If I was Google, I would be very worried, and if I was DDG I would be pulling out all stops with advertising.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by easrng on Friday January 28, 2022 @10:49PM (#30123607)

DuckDuckGo has lots of ads actually, even on the radio (!) which is pretty interesting.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by herbst on Friday January 28, 2022 @06:03PM (#30121704)

I wasn't even aware how many sites mirror GitHub until Google stopped finding GitHub for me at all.

If I don't add 'GitHub' it likely won't show up, and if I do there is no guarantee either.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by jojohohanon on Friday January 28, 2022 @05:13PM (#30121152)

I’ve not noticed malware so much, but several legit independent programming resources (baledung, as a random example of a possible target; not sure I’ve seen their content stolen) will have their content lifted wholesale, slightly cropped to remove identifying marks, and then rehosted, stuffed to the gills with ads.

These initially seem fine, and it’s only when you repeatedly search the same topic that you notice the stolen content. You can tell the legit site by having bylines, references, and fewer ads.

Google seems to weight them the same, which is near malicious: it has the history to show primacy.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by danuker on Friday January 28, 2022 @06:54PM (#30122175)

Could it be that more ads on the pirate sites mean more Google revenue?

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by willis936 on Friday January 28, 2022 @04:37PM (#30120713)

At least once a week I stupidly click on a malware site from search results. Luckily it's always on a work laptop that has AV that prevents the page from loading.

This never happened in my life until the past two months. Some many things are very wrong right now.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by easrng on Friday January 28, 2022 @10:51PM (#30123613)

uBlock Origin will block most of the redirect/traffic selling pages and put up a big warning screen.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by neurostimulant on Friday January 28, 2022 @11:25PM (#30123784)

> The only way out is to close the tab and start over.

You can press and hold the back button to reveal a list of previous urls. Useful to evade forced redirect like this because you can "jump" directly to the last google search url.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by 20after4 on Monday January 31, 2022 @01:56AM (#30145309)

These sites somehow defeat the history list entirely. The history for the tab just disappears.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by cendyne on Friday January 28, 2022 @06:37PM (#30122024)

This happens to me when I research some RFC concepts surrounding oauth, saml, and the like. It’s incredibly frustrating.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by alexpetralia on Friday January 28, 2022 @03:11PM (#30119702)

I used to notice this so much I had initially thought my browser got hacked.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by c7DJTLrn on Friday January 28, 2022 @06:32PM (#30121975)

I've seen that behaviour for years. Even with quotes which used to show exact verbatim matches only, you'll still get pages of garbage results.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by convolutionart on Friday January 28, 2022 @05:48PM (#30121545)

Seems a similar attack may occur with scam calls. User looks up number. Search leads to malicious page. It has now linked phone and pc details.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by 20after4 on Monday January 31, 2022 @01:59AM (#30145324)

Holy crap that's devious. Never occurred to me. Do you have any reference to this or is it just a hypothesis? Seems scarily plausible to me.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by emptyparadise on Saturday January 29, 2022 @09:56PM (#30133422)

I've been going insane since I couldn't find anybody talking about this (just tons and tons of SEO blogs) but yes.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by rambojazz on Monday January 31, 2022 @03:45AM (#30145893)

I've noticed this issue for years. And that is the reason why I never go past page 2.

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by jkaptur on Friday January 28, 2022 @03:08PM (#30119665)

Are you able to provide an example query?

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Re:Tell HN: Google returning 'Untitled' results that redirec... by 20after4 on Monday January 31, 2022 @02:02AM (#30145340)

Unfortunately no, I haven't kept notes when it happened.

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