'Human error' hits Google search

[The Straight Story]

'Human error' hits Google search

Google's search service has been hit by technical problems, with users unable to access search results.

For a period on Saturday, all search results were flagged as potentially harmful, with users warned that the site "may harm your computer".

Users who clicked on their preferred search result were advised to pick another one.

Google attributed the fault to human error and said most users were affected for about 40 minutes.

"What happened? Very simply, human error," wrote Marissa Mayer, vice president, search products and user experience, on the Official Google Blog.

The internet search engine works with stopbadware.org to ascertain which sites install malicious software on people's computers and merit a warning.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7862840.stm

[geckosfeet]

1. yes - i exeprienced that on their site first hand - had to copy and paste urls!

[PeaceNikki]

2. So they weren't hAx0r3D?

[Xipe Totec]

3. Computer boo boo

Owie! :cry:

[Regret My New Name]

4. Ohh, I saw that..

I thought it was 'cause they didn't want me looking at porn...

...like seriously. Good thing it was just an error.

[jwirr]

5. Compliments of the billboard hacker?

[PeaceNikki]

6. No, just a mistake. They happen.

"We periodically update that list and released one such update to the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file. Since we push these updates in a staggered and rolling fashion, the errors began appearing between 6:27 a.m. and 6:40 a.m. and began disappearing between 7:10 and 7:25 a.m., so the duration of the problem for any particular user was approximately 40 minutes."

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/01/this-site-may-harm-your-computer-on.html

[chat_noir]

7. Moran at American Thinker (sic)

January 31, 2009

Google Blocks Conservative Websites

Rick Moran

The blocks appear to be temporary - more a nuisance than a threat. But this morning, websites for the Republican National Committee, Real Clear Politics, and Pajamas Media were all blocked with the caption: Warning - visiting this web site may harm your computer!

...

The potential for this gigantic corporation to game the free flow of information to suit its own ideological ends is frightening. Everyone - liberals and conservatives - should be concerned when ideological attacks like this take place.

Can our friends on the left guarantee that Google won't be sold to some rabid conservative management in the future? Of course not, which is why they should join us now to protest this rank partisanship displayed by Google.

http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/01/google_blocks_conservative_web.html

[akwapez]

8. I'd say Google has at least 1 less employee than they had 6 hrs ago. n/t

[Vinnie From Indy]

9. I wonder how many millions of users spent hours trying to figure out if they had a virus

When it happened to me this morning, I had the thought that my system had been compromised. I spent about 15 minutes doing diagnostics and sweeps. Thankfully, I had a friend email me about the problem being Google's.

[Posteritatis]

10. These days, I'm sure vast swathes of them actually found something, at least (nt)

[elocs]

11. Yes, I had that happen to me this morning and first thought it might be my computer,

then I tried Dogpile with no problem while I was still getting the message with Google on every single search result.