Breaking: What’s the Matter with Google?
Posted on: January 31, 2009
Posted in: Video
Posted by: Cali Lewis
Shownotes:
This morning started like a typical morning for me … with a google search. I searched for Bruce Williams, a broadcaster who does a business advice show and got the results I’d respect along with warnings on every search result. The warning says, “This Site May Harm Your Computer.” I went to a different Mac and did a search. Same thing. I used different search words and phrases. Same thing. I did a search from different browsers and from a PC and got the same warning message.
Next step twitter. I asked if anyone else is getting the error and it appears to be happening to everyone on every search.
At this point, all we have is questions:
Did Google get hacked?
Is it an internal error?
Can anyone remember an issue this crippling happening to Google before?
TechCrunch speculates here. I went live on ustream as we tried to figure out what is happening.
UDPATE: Google explained that it was human error:
What happened? Very simply, human error. Google flags search results with the message “This site may harm your computer” if the site is known to install malicious software in the background or otherwise surreptitiously. We do this to protect our users against visiting sites that could harm their computers. We work with a non-profit called StopBadware.org to get our list of URLs. StopBadware carefully researches each consumer complaint to decide fairly whether that URL belongs on the list. Since each case needs to be individually researched, this list is maintained by humans, not algorithms.
We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here’s the human error), the URL of ‘/’ was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and ‘/’ expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes.
UPDATE 2: See the Brief where I discuss the issue in full.
« Part 2: A Look at the Palm Pre
GBTV #505 | The Google Glitch »
January 31st, 2009 at 8:14 am
it may be a new feature that was suppose to go on limit release but got completely messed up.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:15 am
I have the same problem here! The Netherlands 4PM Amsterdam using MacBook 2.1 Ghz with XS4ALL internet provider. It’s everywhere!
January 31st, 2009 at 8:15 am
Same for me!
This is so weird…
January 31st, 2009 at 8:15 am
Recommend NOT reporting the sites as malicious, obviously. A lot of valid sites could get temporarily blacklisted if you click that “report this” button.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:16 am
I noticed the same thing about the same time as you.
Techcrunch is covering it as well – looks like they got hacked (Google) or something went awry.
http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/31/google-flags-whole-internet-as-malware/
January 31st, 2009 at 8:17 am
Seems to be getting better intermittently, some searches work, others don’t. Maybe it just takes a while to propagate to all clusters.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:17 am
I seem to remember Google making flubs that effected actual search results, which I’d say is a bigger flub.
You left one off your list too, Could be this is a parting gift from a Google Layoffee.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:17 am
same thing happned to me when i searched for “barrack obama twitter” yesterday.
it’s probably google’s way of trying to stop bots or something…
nevertheless, it’s annoying not to get the search results right away.
good morning!
January 31st, 2009 at 8:18 am
Funny, I did exactly the same thing you did – well, I wasn’t searching for Bruce Williams, I was searching for some Mac info. Got the result, checked a second computer, then checked twitter. Found your post. Says a lot for Twitter. Not much for Google if they got hacked. I have a screenshot of a google search on “google” that shows that Google is calling itself a harmful site. Something for posterity.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:18 am
Seems global, I’ve seen a twitpic from china! http://twitpic.com/19lll
January 31st, 2009 at 8:19 am
A possible exception? News results (even when listed on the main results page) don’t seem to have the warning.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:20 am
Yup. I noticed it on my blog search result. I Google searched for Google and it still showed that, so I didn’t bother!
My prediction: GDrive is almost there!
January 31st, 2009 at 8:21 am
It’s everywhere, even if you search on Google pages. Also, some Google pages (help pages in GReader) return 502s, so it could be a systemic outage. Earlier this week, their GMail offline feature broke GReader…maybe they’re having QC problems with new and expanding features (safe search has been around for awhile, but maybe they were expanding it).
January 31st, 2009 at 8:22 am
They have updated their mobile search page, particularly the suggestions feature. There may be other updates that were conflicting. Or possibly a feature that went too far.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:22 am
Hi Cali,
I believe this faulty error is spooky for those who aren’t Internet gurus like us. Making them panic about the fact the Internet is too harmful and dangerous.
And what about those Internet rankings ? Sites marked as evil by Google don’t get visitors.
Cheers from Belgium,
Michelangelo
January 31st, 2009 at 8:23 am
a angry fired employee?. Now it’s gone.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:23 am
Got the same issue here…. I am in Beijing, China
January 31st, 2009 at 8:24 am
I’m not getting that message on ANY google search on my iPod touch. From Seattle.
January 31st, 2009 at 8:25 am
That was crazy, would be cool if it took a few hours, Would there be riots?
January 31st, 2009 at 8:35 am
Looks like Google is fixed! Whew!
January 31st, 2009 at 9:21 am
I thought it was just me. Damn, I wonder what happened… Google’s back to normal now though.
January 31st, 2009 at 9:33 am
Same here. Europe, Slovenia using Macbook Pro 2.33 GHz
January 31st, 2009 at 10:06 am
I noticed this about three weeks ago on a site managed by a very tech savvy friend -
January 31st, 2009 at 11:01 am
Interesting…..
January 31st, 2009 at 5:48 pm
@annelisewojo Cali Lewis has info regarding the Google downtime: http://tinyurl.com/cdld36
January 31st, 2009 at 6:00 pm
GeekBrief.TV | Video Podcast » Blog Archive » Breaking: What#… http://is.gd/hUxo (retweeted 47x http://is.gd/hVeI )
January 31st, 2009 at 6:08 pm
Google explains it was human error – http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 (via @CaliLewis)
January 31st, 2009 at 6:12 pm
Google explains it was human error – http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 (via @CaliLewis) – What happens when Google is at 90% instead of 70%
January 31st, 2009 at 7:08 pm
@ipodgrrl Google explains it was human error – http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 (via @CaliLewis)
January 31st, 2009 at 7:16 pm
Google explains it was human error – http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 (via @CaliLewis)
January 31st, 2009 at 7:59 pm
@dcrblogs ck this out about google: http://tinyurl.com/cdld36
January 31st, 2009 at 10:48 pm
http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 Breaking: What’s the Matter with Google?
February 1st, 2009 at 8:11 am
Well, if you have an active antivirus running while surfing you wouldn’t be having a heart attack.
February 8th, 2009 at 11:39 pm
I’ve heard about Courts using video conferencing technologies especially in the rural areas and villages. Even though it’s an expensive approach but it’s a great way for developing these areas.
February 13th, 2009 at 2:14 pm
awesomeness – http://tinyurl.com/cdld36 (4:43) @CaliLewis is such a great show, been a fan for a long time.
January 8th, 2010 at 3:48 am
hey I decided to comment and telll you hott layout and nice site! good job with the blog!! x)