Skip to main content

Google News taken over by spam listings for pills and dating sites

google news spam nyc
Sean Pavone / Shutterstock
If you thought your Google News results looked a little odd Monday morning, you weren’t wrong, nor were you alone. As initially reported by Search Engine Land, Google News was taken over with hacked content for both pharmaceutical and dating site spam in the early morning hours of June 12. Proving that even the largest of our tech giants aren’t infallible, this rather large-scale mistake initially appeared on the main Google News page, and was then relegated to just the Health section.

For those who didn’t see the spam injection, search results were essentially replaced with various ads seeking to peddle Viagra and other drugs, as well as online dating sites. While Google News generally exclusively lists the most recent articles from their vetted catalog of news sources, it seems as though only the headlines of these news pieces were replaced, not the sources themselves. Thumbnail images, headlines, and article previews were all edited to look like spam, but the media channels themselves appeared legitimate.

Search Engine Land was ultimately informed that “the issue was on the publisher side,” and the article listings have been amended.

So what happened?

It would appear that some news outlets were hacked over the weekend, with malicious links redirecting from their websites. As Palate Press (an Indiana-based online wine publication) told IBTimes U.K., “We are not sure how the hackers got in, but it took two days to clear out the thousands upon thousands of malicious files. Once that was done we had to ask Google and Bing to recrawl the site to flush out the bad links.” And Google noted that no “human editors [are] selecting stories or deciding which ones deserve top placement,” and that news listings are instead determined by freshness of content, diversity of content, and originality of content.

We’ve reached out to Google for further information, and will let you know as we learn more.

Editors' Recommendations

Lulu Chang
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Fascinated by the effects of technology on human interaction, Lulu believes that if her parents can use your new app…
How to change your language in Google Chrome on desktop
Chrome OS

Google Chrome supports a wide range of languages. While it'll default to English in most cases, there's nothing stopping you from changing its settings and displaying pages in Spanish, French, or dozens of other languages.

Changing your default language in Chrome takes only a few seconds, and the technique used is the same across Windows and Mac. Aside from changing your language, note that Chrome now gives you the option to automatically translate pages written in another language – making it easy to read content from around the globe.

Read more
23 of the best Netflix hacks, tips, and tricks
The Netflix home screen.

Netflix is one of the most popular streaming platforms for all things movies and TV shows. Home to an immense library of titles, the Netflix archive is constantly changing and evolving, and so are the many ways you can use your Netflix account. 

For instance, did you know you can access region-locked Netflix shows and flicks by using a VPN? Or that you can disable that pesky Autoplay feature? There are tons of Netflix hacks, tips, and tricks out there, so we’ve gone ahead and rounded up all of our favorites! 
Expand your streaming with a VPN

Read more
How to make a GIF from a YouTube video
woman sitting and using laptop

Sometimes, whether you're chatting with friends or posting on social media, words just aren't enough -- you need a GIF to fully convey your feelings. If there's a moment from a YouTube video that you want to snip into a GIF, the good news is that you don't need complex software to so it. There are now a bunch of ways to make a GIF from a YouTube video right in your browser.

If you want to use desktop software like Photoshop to make a GIF, then you'll need to download the YouTube video first before you can start making a GIF. However, if you don't want to go through that bother then there are several ways you can make a GIF right in your browser, without the need to download anything. That's ideal if you're working with a low-specced laptop or on a phone, as all the processing to make the GIF is done in the cloud rather than on your machine. With these options you can make quick and fun GIFs from YouTube videos in just a few minutes.
Use GIFs.com for great customization
Step 1: Find the YouTube video that you want to turn into a GIF (perhaps a NASA archive?) and copy its URL.

Read more