Searchcompanion.com

Searchcompanion.com Image

Searchcompanion.com is one of the many fake search engines associated with the Google Redirect Virus. This unsafe website has an overall blue color scheme with a large stock photo of a female model typing on a computer on the right side of the screen. On the left side is a list of links claiming to take a user to Windows Live, a website for small business loans and a variety of business-related categories. ESG security researchers advise to stay away from Searchcompanion.com and to avoid performing any searches or clicking any of the links on this fraudulent website. Searchcompanion.com is closely associated with a variety of malware threats. However, while it is easy to advise people to stay away from the Searchcompanion.com website, doing so is not as easy. This is because most of the traffic for the Searchcompanion.com website is generated with the help of browser hijackers, malware infections that take over an Internet browser and force it to perform certain actions without the computer user's authorization.

Searchcompanion.com and Browser Hijackers

As their name implies, browser hijackers completely take over an Internet browser. Some or all of the following symptoms will be exhibited by a computer infected with a Searchcompanion.com browser hijacker:

1. Searchcompanion.com browser hijackers will primarily force a computer system to visit Searchcompanion.com. Once there, clicking on any of the links or performing a search on this fake search engine, will expose the victim to other malware infections.
2. Browser hijackers associated with Searchcompanion.com have also been known to force the infected Internet browser to display advertisements and pop-up windows. It is highly probable that these advertisements either link to other unsafe websites or directly infect your computer system with Trojans, spyware or adware, by taking advantage of exploits in JavaScript or Flash.
3. The main browser hijacker associated with Searchcompanion.com is the Google Redirect Virus, one of the main components of the ZeroAccess rootkit. The Google Redirect Virus is a Trojan which, as its name implies, changes the search results on Google and other popular search engines. When this browser hijacker is present on the infected computer system, the links in any search results will be altered to direct the victim to Searchcompanion.com, or to other, similar malicious websites.
4. Browser hijackers associated with Searchcompanion.com are not designed to run smoothly or efficiently. This is why a computer system infected with a Searchcompanion.com browser hijacker will usually become slow, unresponsive and unstable.