Editing Google Search (section)

=== January 2009 malware bug ===
[[File:Google Search error of January 31, 2009.png|thumb|right|A screenshot of the error of January 31, 2009]]

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. For approximately 40 minutes on January 31, 2009, all search results were mistakenly classified as [[malware]] and could therefore not be clicked; instead a warning message was displayed and the user was required to enter the requested URL manually. The bug was caused by human error.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Krebs |first=Brian |date=January 31, 2009 |title=Google: This Internet May Harm Your Computer |newspaper=The Washington Post |url=http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/01/google_this_internet_will_harm.html?hpid=news-col-blog |access-date=January 31, 2009 |archive-date=November 30, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111130155700/http://voices.washingtonpost.com/securityfix/2009/01/google_this_internet_will_harm.html?hpid=news-col-blog |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="googleblog">{{Cite web |last=Mayer |first=Marissa |date=January 31, 2009 |title=This site may harm your computer on every search result?!?! |url=http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html |access-date=January 31, 2009 |website=Official Google Blog |archive-date=February 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090202063204/http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="stopbadware">{{Cite web |last=Weinstein |first=Maxim |date=January 31, 2009 |title=Google glitch causes confusion |url=http://blog.stopbadware.org/2009/01/31/google-glitch-causes-confusion |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100708013913/http://blog.stopbadware.org/2009/01/31/google-glitch-causes-confusion |archive-date=July 8, 2010 |access-date=May 10, 2010 |publisher=StopBadware }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Cooper |first=Russ |date=January 31, 2009 |title=Serious problems with Google search |url=http://securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2009/01/31/serious-problems-with-google-search/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110717193934/http://securityblog.verizonbusiness.com/2009/01/31/serious-problems-with-google-search/ |archive-date=July 17, 2011 |access-date=May 10, 2010 |publisher=Verizon Business Security Blog}}</ref>&nbsp;The [[URL]] of "/" (which expands to all URLs) was mistakenly added to the malware patterns file.<ref name="googleblog" /><ref name="stopbadware" />