[ExI] phony google

[spike]

You internet hipsters have likely been all over this for decades, but I just
thought of it this morning, so bear with me please.

 

I have been a Google user since about 1998.  They have been consistently
non-evil in that time, and I am satisfied with them.  I have local friends
who work there, I have it set on all my default new-page tabs etc.
Yesterday I somehow downloaded Delta Search, which turned out to be one hell
of a difficult virus to uninstall.  I did a Google search, found two or
three different instruction sets on what steps to take in order to uninstall
Delta Search, but somehow it kept reinserting itself into the default
new-tab list.  

 

I found a free app that detects Delta Search, which it did.  But to actually
delete and uninstall, they wanted 30 bucks.  So I went to a second product,
but it was the same story.  Then I found a free widget which claimed to find
and uninstall Delta free, deleted and uninstalled everything associated with
Delta Search, hooray!

 

It then occurred to me that if the technology exists that installs a default
tab to a particular search engine, a company could set the engine to default
to the company's favorite sites, such as those sites which pay that company
money to do that.  It could do like Delta Search and make it damn difficult
to uninstall.  Many of my older friends such as those in my parents'
generation could not do it.

 

But take it a step further: a company could use that tech, then disguise
itself as Google, so that the victim would not even know his web searches
are being hijacked.  I have found Google to be non-evil, but could not a
company create a counterfeit Google, even copy the logos and such?  The
unsuspecting user would never know they are using a phony front end, since
the engine could return actual Google search results with its own favorites
inserted, as well as track everything, and doing all manner of evil, while
disguised as Google.

 

If little tiny innocent microscopic spike can think of this, the internet
hipsters would be all over it 20 yrs ago.  So how do I know if I have a
counterfeit Google now?  How would I know if I caught one later?  How do I
know that the free widget which uninstalled Delta didn't just change the
names of the system files and disguise it as Google?  Is there a vocabulary
already in place to describe this?

 

spike

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