Many people know very well of the situation with spyware and viruses which hijack search engine results on popular search engines like Google, Yahoo! or MSN. However, I have never heard of spyware programs which conduct search queries on Google for a purpose.

I decided to hit Google up while I was searching for WordPress Templates for a new blog I am starting up. I quickly typed the query “wordpress” into their search box and was redirected to their sorry page, displaying error message which said:

…but we can’t process your request right now. A computer virus or spyware application is sending us automated requests, and it appears that your computer or network has been infected.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your computer is free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for this inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again soon on Google.

To continue searching, please type the characters you see below: ____

Click on the thumbnail below to view the screenshot I took of the error message:

Now it really makes you wonder if Google is trying to catch malicious software on your desktop or to prevent scripts from automatically searching through Google Search Engine Results Pages (SERP’s). What good would it do to any hacker to code up a spyware program to search on Google?

Technorati Tags: spyware, virus, Google