Question about Google and odd pages opening!

[androbbob]

Been having a few issues with the PC recently - you are on the web and search for something, say, and then it finds the page you want. So you click on it and it then opens another IE with google on it or another site called google analyatics (or something like that). It is getting annoying and I suppose there is a virus or spyware? How do I get rid of it!!

We have AVG and Ad-Aware as well as the usual windows security stuff that the pc comes with. Anyone got any ideas??

Google Analytics is some monitoring software from Google to help web site owners track the way visitors reach (and then wander around) their web site.

There might have been a bug in some code that made it open a new window / tab.

Some browsers have settings to control whether a clicked link opens in the same window/ tab or in a new one. Some (eg porn) websites like to show adverts (since they get paid, either for clicks or simply for displaying ads) and may try to force a browser to open a new window.

Some browsers block pop-up windows or stop JavaScript from creating new windows (some are called 'pop under' where the window opens but hides behind your existing browser window, so there is an advert sitting on screen when you close your existing window. tab).

Some sites are persistently annoying by having code so whenever you try to close a window/ tab, it immediately opens a fresh one (typically an advert site) or opens an "Add a bookmark to this page" box and won't go away.

I think it might just be the bug type problem though MS IE is one of the browsers which is used by malware writers because it can be guaranteed to be on every Windows PC. MS IE has BHOs (Background Helper Objects) and there's a section about Concerns over BHO being loaded with MS IE on Wikipedia.

You could try Firefox or Chrome or Opera, and see if you get the same new window problem... I linked to some other services / sites in this post.