• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Google now blocking websites that show fake download buttons

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

Dalek

Member
Google now blocking websites that show fake download buttons

SBWarnBlur-640x425.jpg


Google has now started blocking websites that use deceptive content or ads to make you do things that you wouldn't normally do, such as fake download buttons that appear right next to the real download button, or pop-ups demanding you phone tech support to remove a million malware infections that were apparently found on your computer. It sounds like this will be a gradual rollout; it'll take time for Google to work out which sites are consistent offenders.

The blocking will occur via Google's Safe Browsing tech, which you've probably seen before: it's that big red interstitial that appears when you click on a dodgy search result. Safe Browsing has been around for years, but it mostly just prevented you from visiting sites that were serving up malware, or sites that Google had otherwise deemed unsafe.
Click to expand...

For webmasters, this change could be particularly troublesome. Hosting deceptive content on your site is one thing, but deceptive third-party content served by random ad servers is a little harder to police. Google's webmaster knowledge base doesn't offer much help, except to note that "ad networks may rotate the ads shown on your site's pages. You therefore might need to refresh a page a few times before you're able to see any social engineering ads appear."

For everyone else, though, this will be a very welcome change. While usage patterns are shifting, Google Search still drives billions of website clicks per day, and many of those websites still rely on Google traffic to stay afloat. It's probably wishful thinking, but this might just be the beginning of the end for fake download buttons.
Click to expand...
 
A

Akuun

Looking for meaning in GAF
Please do this for shitty phone ads too.

I've been getting more and more "YOUR PHONE IS INFECTED PLEASE CLICK HERE" ads sneaking into what are otherwise good apps that usually display harmless ads. It's really annoying.
 
O

onadesertedisland

Member
Website creators should agree to stop using these deceptive tactics. Perhaps an automated validator for sites that would upon passing allow for displaying a badge akin to W3C compliance that lets visitors know there are no deceptive links.
 
O

Ogodei

Member
Good first step towards getting advertisers to clean up their act. The solution within the existing layout (e.g. without changing how non-subscription web content is paid for) is to force self-regulation among advertisers, at least on "reputable" sites, pushing this sort of stuff until the underworld of warez sites and porn.
 
T

Tenebrous

Member
Doesn't Firefox already do this (maybe with the right addons)? I'm pretty sure I've had a warning message show up before.
 
O

onadesertedisland

Member
Akuun said:
Please do this for shitty phone ads too.

I've been getting more and more "YOUR PHONE IS INFECTED PLEASE CLICK HERE" ads sneaking into what are otherwise good apps that usually display harmless ads. It's really annoying.
Click to expand...

And the ads that drop out to the app/play store. Infuriating.
 
iNvid02

iNvid02

Member
i think its gotten better now, but at one point revisiting cnet's download.com for the first time in years was eye opening, duplicate download ad buttons everywhere and offers and offers stuffed into the installer, i was legit shook at how far it had fallen
 
D

daveo42

Banned
Shmuppers said:
People are still gonna get fooled.
Click to expand...

Well, when some of those sites have about 30 different "Download" buttons when all you want is that one thing you went there for, it's pretty easy for anyone to get fooled. I've had several moments in the past where I had to stare at a site to see which button is the actual download button whatever drivers I was searching for.

It's a fucking pain in the ass.
 
S

SpikeDaPenguin

Neo Member
blame space said:
unrelated, but has this been happening to anyone else recently? I didn't want to make a thread.



no idea what it means. Rats!
Click to expand...

That happened to me in Chrome on my Desktop. How I fixed it is I :
1. Typed in the URL chrome://flags
2. Found Enable WebGL Draft Extensions
3. Enabled it.

I no longer get the message anymore. Hope that helps.
 
ebullientprism

ebullientprism

Member
Exokell said:
So they're gonna block all torrent sites?
Click to expand...

ao904Nw_700b.jpg


I am glad this is happening. The amount of crap I have had to clean up off friends and relative's PCs cause they wanted to download that ringtone or some stupid shit is nuts.

Fake download link that leads you to a fake update your flash player pop up. Which then installs like 10 different programs on your PC cause you just have to hammer the next key like a lab monkey on meth.
 
C

Colin.

Member
I'm glad Google have finally cracked down on these.Adblock gets rid of most of them, but still came across them on the odd occasion. A lot of them were intentionally deceptive too by looking almost identical to the real download button.
 
P

Principate

Saint Titanfall
daveo42 said:
Well, when some of those sites have about 30 different "Download" buttons when all you want is that one thing you went there for, it's pretty easy for anyone to get fooled. I've had several moments in the past where I had to stare at a site to see which button is the actual download button whatever drivers I was searching for.

It's a fucking pain in the ass.
Click to expand...

Never visit such sites without an adblocker. Amend that never visit any slightly dodgy areas of the internet without an adblocker. Unless your ok with all the shit it tends to throw at you.
 
M

M3d10n

Member
Imm0rt4l said:
Any chance this incentivizes websites to knock this shit off?
Click to expand...

CNET already looks far cleaner than it did a year ago, so probably. I checked filehippo and also found only one download button, so it seems the high profile websites were warned in advance and purged them.

It won't stop them from bundling nagware on their "downloaders", of course.
 
F

FinKL

Member
This is funny, but it will definitely help the normal computer user. Took any of the internet browsers LONG enough.

I had someone want me to install Chrome to move away from Firefox and I noticed she had setupchrome.exe in here downloads so I said "You already downloaded it, why didn't you install it" and she says "Oh I don't know"

I double click it and low and behold it's not Google Chrome, but something pretending to be Chrome. I can tell because there's a hot woman on the splash screen and I'm like, "this ain't Chrome..."

I typed in google.com and "google chrome" and downloaded the real one, but if you had NEVER installed Google Chrome before, how would you have known?
 
X

Xyber

Member
Messypandas said:
Now tell people to knock this shit off too

oeothQ0.jpg
Click to expand...

For me personally it has just become a minor annoyance since I am so used to that by now.

But my dads PC on the other hand.. I have given up on getting rid of all that dumb shit he installs, it used to be a monthly occurrence that I needed to fix something on his PC. Even for someone who is very computer savvy it can be a real pain in the ass to get rid of some of that shit.
 
B

Brannon

Member
Cnet was notorious for this until recently; I mean, I shouldn't have to study a website like I'm solving a puzzle in The Witness to get a f'n camera driver :mad:
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Google will delete inactive accounts in December
News
2
1K
NoLootBoxDev replied
GTA 6 scammers are already making fake PC downloads
Cringe
14
1K
sendit replied
Google is ‘crooked’ and a bully, CEO of Fortnite-maker Epic Games testifies in Play Store trial
News Business 2
64
4K
Bernoulli replied
  • Poll
GAF, what do we think of .webp format?
Opinion
15
2K
Wildebeest replied
Minecraft Wiki is moving from Fandom to minecraft.wiki
Drama Community
8
1K
RemiBauer replied
Top Bottom