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Google Error Tests for Bots

 

July 2nd, 2007 · by David Bradley

Have you ever clicked a link in the Google search results and seen the following error message?

Google 	 Error 	 

    We're sorry...

    ... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

    We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

    We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we'll see you again on Google.
    To continue searching, please type the characters you see below:

To get past that page you have to type in the letters displayed in an image captcha of the kind used to prevent comment spam on blogs.

Odd isn’t it?

Why should simply clicking a link in the SERPs cause Google to think you are a bot or some kind of malware?

I have a theory. It is not there to protect Google from bots and malware at all, although that’s obviously what they want you to think. Instead, I reckon this “test” is there so they can assess the value of a random link in their results page. If you go ahead and fill in the captcha, you are putting more effort in than someone who simply hits the back key and does another search. You are essentially validating the link you intend to visit. Without the captcha it is easy. With it, you must really, really want to visit.

I doubt anyone from Google reads this blog, so we are unlikely to get confirmation or denial in the comments here, but what do you think, could this purported Google error, really be a way of testing sites in its index, what do you think?

5 responses so far ↓

  • Hsien Lei // Jul 3, 2007 at 3:49 pm

    I have never seen that before. Guess I’m just an upstanding Internetizen. :D

  • David Bradley // Jul 3, 2007 at 4:16 pm

    Maybe you are, maybe you’re not…maybe they know all about you already and simply hide that error message so you don’t get suspicious. Just because you’re not paranoid does not mean they aren’t not out to get you anyway.

  • rob watts // Aug 2, 2007 at 8:00 am

    You might be right David. In the example I saw yesterday on blogsearch there was no captcha.

    In the past people used WPG to scrape serps or xenu or other similar progs to snatch google data. The thing is that a determined scraper would be a little more sophisitcanted and use a tool that spoofed user agents and used proxified IP’s so I dont quite get where they fet off on what for me is prolly related to some general IP based abuse capture.

    Take BT or NTL or any big UK ISP as an example and you’ll notice that they pretty much randomise IP ranges for their users. I think google might have a little aspect of their scripts that identifies say the st 3 aspects of the IP adress eg 192.168.2. and then wildcards everything else. So, any user with that IP will get hammered for a short period. This is because a user on the same IP range could have been abusing the resource so they decide to take action. Yet the reality is that they penalise everyone as a result, or at least a huge number of people, which is kinda sucky and bad for them too as it just weakens the user experience and makes them think damn you google. As for that spyware virus message that’s even worse cos if anything it’ll just alarm users into thinking they have a problem…”ooh Google told me I might have a virus…it must be true ” kinda thinking.

  • David Bradley // Aug 2, 2007 at 5:34 pm

    That could be it. It certainly reduces my allegiance to Google as a search engine…I might switch to SearchMash permanently…oh, hold on wait a minute! That’s Google too, you say? ;-)

  • Rob Cluett // Dec 29, 2007 at 5:23 pm

    Dear Paranoid,

    It’s because the IP you’re coming from which may in fact be a proxy has something whacking their servers. If you are an Enterprise of 300,000+ people it could be anyone of them constantly requesting somethign from google too quickly which does in fact make it look like a virus. You need to track down the offending devices in your network and get them to stop :)

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