This morning Google kinda went haywire and all the results for my search had a message "This site may harm your computer."
For fun, I entered "Google" into the search bar and got the same results.
Note: Click on any of the screen images for a larger size.
Clicking the link led to a warning page.
A quick search on Twitter confirmed it wasn't just me.
Very quickly the hashtag #googmayharm started to be used so people could share stories and screenshots via Twitter and other social media sites.
Google does so many things so well, that it is sort of fun to catch them with a little hiccup. Just shows that we all have issues.
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David,
Thanks for the post and screen shots. I wondered what at all the buzz was about.
Happy Saturday & safe surfing.
Write on!~
Lisa~
Posted by: Lisa Manyon | January 31, 2009 at 10:41 AM
I saw it too.
Do you know how long it lasted?
Posted by: Geno Prussakov | January 31, 2009 at 10:53 AM
Thanks for the post. I saw the buzz but never saw the actual errors (and I was on pretty early this morning). Very amusing stuff. It'll probably make the news (if it hasn't already).
If someone doesn't get fired, they're certainly going to be very nervous for a while.
Posted by: Michael Lunsford | January 31, 2009 at 11:28 AM
It sounds like a hack. Probably by a team from Microsoft...
Posted by: Bob Dobbs | January 31, 2009 at 11:52 AM
hmmm. i can't find any info about who is (or isn't) claiming responsibility. any ideas?
Posted by: susan benford | January 31, 2009 at 12:03 PM
I must say that youtube has been dead almoust for two days in Spain.
The strange thing is there is almoust no media coverage about this.
Posted by: mario | January 31, 2009 at 04:08 PM
Apparently, it was human error. Someone mistakenly flagged all sites as dangerous, instead of just those that actually posed a threat.
More here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/01/technology/internet/01google.html?hp
Posted by: Jodi Kaplan | January 31, 2009 at 05:53 PM
I admit it - I panicked for a few moments. Funny how we become so dependent on something to work ALL the time, eh?
Posted by: Julie Roads | February 01, 2009 at 09:38 AM
The timing of this happening Saturday morning was hilarious, as I was writing a post on the Sex Pistols and I Googled them and all the sites had that warning. I actually think the band would have wanted it that way.
Posted by: rockandrollguru | February 02, 2009 at 11:17 AM
Lots and lots of people were discussing this so often but frankly i did scare when i noticed that the site i searched was on that label, But then again, a lot and a lot of people were keep saying this and at that time i was so relief that it wasn't only me. Thank god now it has been fixed
Posted by: Thewirds | February 02, 2009 at 01:01 PM
I want to know for how long it is listed? I was searching for that.
Posted by: Jackson | April 21, 2012 at 03:21 PM