How can I remove "Positive Finds ads" from Google search results?

Question

I'm using Chrome on Windows 7.

When I search something on Google, I see some ads (which say "Positive Finds") above typical search results.

How can I remove this?

I've uninstalled all suspicious programs, and removed all suspicious extensions from the Chrome browser.

In the Settings tab, the startup page is set to google.com. My only search engine is Google.

Answer 1

Running the free version of MalwareBytes and then AdwCleaner usually remove all browser malware-caused redirections and inserted ads.

Avoid installing suspicious programs and extensions in the future, and make sure to untick all "optional offers" checkboxes when you install something. You may want to keep Unchecky running on your computer.

Answer 2

If you haven't already, try resetting Chrome's install.

• Settings > "Reset settings" (Under the "show advanced settings" link on the bottom of that page.)

It sounds like you've already taken care of changing the larger parts of the settings, but there's most likely something else that's either hijacking the browser or running on the system, waiting to hijack webpage traffic to insert the ads into. Resetting Chrome's settings should take care of the issue if it's just the browser that's being affected.

If that does not fix the issue, I would conciser doing the following:

• in Windows, go to Control Panel -> Internet Options and look under the Connections tab.
• Click on LAN Settings and make sure that "Use a Proxy Server for your LAN" is unchecked.

From there, you should do a virus/malware scan on the PC. Lately I've had a ton of success with ESET Online Scanner in finding and getting of programs that causes these types of hijacks on the system.

There are many more possible issues and fixes out there, but this is a very general first-step I would take to a machine before going hardcore with it. As always, don't forget in using Google from a working machine and do a search for the ad-network, hope that helps!

Answer 3

If you're not running a beta, make sure your Chrome isn't launching with strange arguments.

Windows is generally secure since Vista, so take comfort in the idea that whatever's wrong is something that you explicitly allowed. The optimism being that you may remember what it was.

Know you can use a packet analyzer like Wireshark or Microsoft Network Monitor to identify the culprit responsible for the ads. You can then use that knowledge to block them, or as a clue to see how someone else on the net dealt with them.

There's also the option of trying one of the experimental builds, and trying to do something with knowing whether or not the problem persists.

I can't recommend using some security/cleaner software. If they do find something the meaningful takeaway has to be that it's unknown if they found everything, but it is a fact that you've been compromised in some way.

Answer 4

I tried all of the malware removers but nothing worked on all browsers.

Finally, I uninstalled and reinstated Chrome, and it was gone (at least the visual part of it… I feel super unsafe now… but I have 2 step authentication on most services).