Search-magic.com

The search-magic.com Web address appears to be associated with an intrusive browser hijacker extension. Users have reported noticing their Web browsers experiencing redirects to the unfamiliar address suddenly. This is a classic behavior observed in browser hijackers. These PUPs (Potentially Unwanted Programs) are often spread through underhanded methods, including shady software bundles and even fake installers posing as installers/updaters for legitimate programs.

Once fully deployed, the browser hijacker will take over the Web browser and modify several important settings. Typically, those are the default homepage, new tab page, and default search engine. Depending on the specific PUP, it may affect only one or two of the settings and substitute the current address with the one it promotes. Subsequently, wherever users try to search the Internet via the browser, they would notice redirects to the sponsored page, search-magic.com in this case.

Unfortunately, in the vast majority of cases, the promoted addresses are fake search engines created with the task of imitating genuine engines. They lack the ability to produce results on their own and instead cause further redirects. Even for the users that are shown results taken from legitimate sources, such as Bing, Yahoo, or Google, the fake engine could have included additional advertisements. In addition, while installed on the system, the PUP could collect browsing information, device details, etc.