Google Search Engine Workaround

Google Search Engine can intentionally lead you astray, rather than help you find the information you need. Here are some tricks for using Google to still get what you seek. Google Search has recently been modified to maximize the owners' profit while sacrificing utility for the user. There are many other search engines available, and this Instructable is not intended to compare them to Google. This Instructable is about using Google and getting good results from it. To see my related Instructables, click on unclesam in the INFO box on the right of this page, then repeatedly click "NEXT" see them all.

Step 1: Never Click on the Sponsored Links

A Google search will have a short list of sponsored links at the top of the page of hits. These links appear solely because the owners of the sites have paid money to Google. They typically will have only a vague connection to the object of your search. Never click on any of them, they are a waste of your time.

Step 2: A Typical Example

In this example, the search term "online cd rates" has been entered into the Google search box, resulting in a short list of sponsored links at the top and many pages of other hits that follow. Google no longer ranks hits by relevancy to your search topic, they are listed in order based on money paid to Google, or by clever manipulation by the owners of the sites. You may determine which hits to explore further by reading the short description within each hit or by examining the URL listed at the bottom of the hit. In the past, you would click on the title of a hit and Google would connect you to the site described. Now, Google will often no longer take you to the desired site when you click, but lead you to completely unrelated sites that have paid money to Google. Here's how to get to where you want to go in spite of Google's diabolical manipulations.

Step 3: Strike One!

In the example, one of the hits is for www.emoneycentral.com, and its URL appears at the bottom of the hit description. A left-click on the title for that hit was routed to another site, not emoneycentral.

Step 4: Strike Two!

At another time, a left-click on the emoneycentral.com Google hit led to yet another unrelated site. You could click all day and never actually get to the desired site.

Step 5: Open a Second Browser Window

You can get the actual link to the desired site from the Google hit and enter it into a second browser window's address line. The second browser window is shown on the left and the Google search window on the right.

Step 6: Copy the Shortcut

The trick for getting to the desired site is to NOT left-click on the hit's title. Instead, right-click on the hit to get the pulldown menu shown. Scroll down and select "copy shortcut," which copies the true link onto your computer's clipboard.

Step 7: Paste the Shortcut

In the second browser window, right-click on its address line to get the dropdown menu shown. Select "paste" to put the true link from your clipboard into the browser's address box, then hit your keyboard "enter" key. If you do not get the desired result, you may need to first completely clear (delete) the address line, then right-click and "paste" the link from the clipboard into the blank address line, hit the "enter" keyboard key.

Step 8: Home Run!

You will be linked to the desired site in the second browser window, in this example www.emoneycentral.com. This procedure can be used to visit as many of the sites identified by Google, in turn, as desired, without being led to unwanted unrelated sites. There is no need to close the second browser window, just "copy shortcut" and "paste" each new Google Search link into its address line for each site you want to visit. In the example shown, you could just as well highlight www.emoneycentral.com at the bottom of the Google Search hit description, perform a "copy," then "paste" that into the second browser window address line. However, if the URL is very long for a particular hit, it will appear in abbreviated form. Merely copying then pasting an abbreviated URL will not work, so it is better to always right-click somewhere on the hit, perform "copy the shortcut," then "paste" it into the second browser window's address line. That will always take you to the desired site, then you can have a giggle at beating Google's greed.
Unclesam

Comments

[domamir]

It could also be that you are using IE for your browser. Mircosoft has let profit dictate securty holes. Get rid of the malware and try Firefox.

[MrDarthMaul2U]

I agree with it being malware. My nephew once downloaded soem malware which altered a registry key for IE. This caused me to be directed to the Dutch version of Google. No matter what I typed into the address, it took my there and only returned search results for Dutch language sites.
Funny at first but very annoying after a few minutes.

[paperrhino]

I was curious so I tried to reproduce these results. Either Google has stopped this behavior, or more likely, something else is wrong. For me, the link goes directly to the emoneycentral.com site, not pebble.com or such.

In fact, all of the search results on the first two pages go directly to the URL that Google indicates they go to.

It is possible that there was a temporary problem, Google stopped this behavior, or your machine is infected with malware. My parents have encountered malware that exhibit this sort of behavior in the past.

[REA]

ya its malware. ive had it before and fixed it. forgot how to though.

[BradleyEE]

Yes, definitely malware. It wouldn't really be a very useful search engine if you could never get to the actual result of the search.

When I've seen this one, it is a rootkit, which is able to hide itself from the usual antivirus programs. ComboFix is the program that removes it. Check Google to see where to download and how to use it. (You'll probably have a to use a different computer that doesn't have this malware already on it...)

[adamazing]

Sponsored links aren't always "a waste of time". If you're searching for laptops, it's not necessarily a waste of your time to click on a sponsored link to Dell.com (unless you really don't want a Dell laptop!). But yes, if you're searching for something like, say, "exchange rates" then the sponsored links will probably be to ForEx trading companies, which may not be relevant.

The click-jacking thing you're seeing is almost certainly nothing to do with Google. My bet would be with @paperrhino and @tocsik and be on "malware" of some description.

[tocsik]

I've never had a problem with being redirected to a different site when left clicking in google. I even attempted to duplicate the results you are showing by doing the same search and clicking the same link multiple times. they all took me to straight to emoneycentral.com.

The only time I've ever had a problem even similar to this it was due to a virus. I'm not saying that is whats going on in your case. I'm just saying that I've never had google redirect me to any site other than the one I was expecting after clicking the link.