Google Images - what's going on?

[CAPP0]

Past few days, when I do a Google image search then click on the "visit" button to go to the site, it takes me to one of several *.de sites which then want me to sign up for an account and give CC details to proceed. Needless to say I haven't fallen for that.

I've done a Malware scam (on a Mac) and nothing's coming back. But because of the issue I can't view images in larger sizes, or download them, or read the source page.

Anyone know what's going on? Mac using Safari, but it's doing it on Chrome too.

Edited by CAPP0 on Saturday 1st June 19:06

[silentbrown]

Compromised DNS?

[mattley]

silentbrown said:

Compromised DNS?

Could be.

Open a terminal window and type "nslookup google.com" without the quotes

Post the results here

[CAPP0]

Here you go:



212.159.6.9 is the Plusnet DNS IP which I added manually - and the search is still listing loads of .de sites

[CAPP0]

Here are examples of what's happening:



You may be onto something re the DNS though, before I changed it manually to the Plusnet DNS address almost every search result was coming back with a .de domain.

[mattley]

CAPP0 said:

212.159.6.9 is the Plusnet DNS IP which I added manually - and the search is still listing loads of .de sites

OK, so take that out

run this from terminal sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder

run the nslookup again.

If you get a different address you need to tell plusnet as your router has been compromised.

[CAPP0]

Removed that DNS entry and ran the command above.

The DNS server reverts to 192.***.*.*** which is my router IP. Rather cleverly I seem to have changed my router admin password and not saved it, so I may have to restore to default anyway.

nslookup still returns:

Name: google.co.uk
Address: 216.58.213.3

But I'm "only" getting the same amount of .de domains in the search now, whereas earlier it was probably 80% or more.

Is there anything I need to do now?

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

[mattley]

CAPP0 said:

Is there anything I need to do now?

I'd contact PlusNet and get them to send you a new router

CAPP0 said:

Thanks for the help, much appreciated.

Cheers

[CAPP0]

Thank you.

[silentbrown]

Pretty sure it's not that, as I just ran a google search on "defender alternator wiring" and - like you - got lots of German sites linked.

I think someone's trying to game google search. Searching for "<car-make-here> wiring diagram" just throws up a bunch of spammy sites on google images.

[rxtx]

Yep, same for me, nothing to worry about.

[tribbles]

I have seen that in the past - around 2008. My site was number 11 when you searched for "kittens".

One day, the search pictures were the same (and in the same order), but many pointed to a different domain.

After a couple of months, Google changed the algorithm, and the pictures were reattributed to the right domains, but mine was no longer anywhere interesting.

Really annoyed me.

But sounds like the same thing...

[ging84]

11th when you search for kittens? That's basically 11th place on the internet, since it's number 1 purpose is distributing cat pictures and videos, and kittens are the best type of cat.

[Pit Pony]

ging84 said:

11th when you search for kittens? That's basically 11th place on the internet, since it's number 1 purpose is distributing cat pictures and videos, and kittens are the best type of cat.

I thought its number one purpose was .....

No still.thinking if it has any use.

[tribbles]

ging84 said:

11th when you search for kittens? That's basically 11th place on the internet, since it's number 1 purpose is distributing cat pictures and videos, and kittens are the best type of cat.

That's why I was particularly annoyed - firstly when my pictures suddenly appeared on someone else's domain, and when the algorithm changed.

[ging84]

tribbles said:

That's why I was particularly annoyed - firstly when my pictures suddenly appeared on someone else's domain, and when the algorithm changed.

So your image was still there, but it's source page was now someone else's page?
Was it hot linked or copied?

[tribbles]

ging84 said:

So your image was still there, but it's source page was now someone else's page?
Was it hot linked or copied?

I'm not sure how they did it - it was a while ago, and I couldn't fathom it out at the time. All I know is that when Google showed the source URLs for the image, it changed from my domain to theirs. ISTR that they did a redirect from their site to my site when you clicked on it.

Of course, Google no longer shows the ranking number (and mine still is nowhere - but then it hasn't been updated for a long time, which will count against any ranking).