Browser Redirect Hijack

0

I seem to have become a victim of google searches going to a spanish type domain 'en' when searching in Chrome and Firefox (not IE) browser search boxes.

Eg

searching for 'stackoverflow' lands on:

https://www.google.es/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&rlz=1C1PRFC_enGB589ES593&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=stackoverflow

I have re-installed both, attacked with Kaspersky, Spybot,Combofix and Malwarebytes. Malware bytes found a couple issues in the registry but I think unrelated as this is on 2 pcs.

IE being unaffected might be a red herring as I rarely use it apart from testing.

Datadimension

Posted 2014-06-29T09:58:13.593

Reputation: 103

Does this happens when you type www.google.com in address bar?? Google autodetects your ISP's location and delivers page in that language. – abhishekkannojia – 2014-06-29T10:07:04.727

yes, it redirects to https://www.google.es/?gfe_rd=cr&ei=h16wU4bnHI_Y8geg-oAo&gws_rd=ssl

– Datadimension – 2014-06-29T18:44:47.780

in fact with testing in Bing and Yahoo (not often used) the searches appear normal. Maybe this is some config problem somewhere - checked windows and seems fine. – Datadimension – 2014-06-29T18:50:04.597

Good call abhishekkannojia testing a mobile device which has only the connection in common shows the same problem - divert to google.es. I will test at work with the same device tommorow on a different and seperate ISP – Datadimension – 2014-06-29T18:55:47.103

Answers

0

At the bottom right of the Google home page, there is a link "Use Google.com". On clicking that, you subsequent searches will happen from Google.com.

It may be possible that the Spanish setting has been set for your Google Account and as you are signed in to your Google Account on both your mobile device & desktop browser, you're seeing searches getting redirected to google.es.

mvark

Posted 2014-06-29T09:58:13.593

Reputation: 2 260

I can confirm this correct having tested throughout today this exact scenario. Crediting you with the answer as you beat me to posting it. Quite how or why I still don't know. Additional steps I took were turning off all known devices and then logging in one by one has fixed this (not sure if that was really needed). Hidden in plain sight if one uses the actual search page, but I usually use the address bar, or search box on the browser. I am kicking myself, particulary having beat the SearchConduit for others in about 10 seconds. Thanks all !!!!! – Datadimension – 2014-06-30T17:49:07.733

Asked: 2014-06-29T09:58:13.593

Viewed: 331 times

Active: 2014-06-30T04:32:29.450