Edge Stable version is reportedly redirecting Google Search results via “OKSearch” to some other sites. There were multiple reports on this on Reddit and one on the Answers forum. As of now, Microsoft is aware of this and is investigating the issue. Meanwhile, the company is suggesting that affected users turn off all the extensions.
Malicious Extensions installed in the browser hijacking the Home page, new Tab Page, and search settings aren’t a new thing. But this is happening in the new Edge for some users and with different extensions installed.
Google Search Results redirecting via OKSearch reported
According to reports [1] [2] [3], users searching from the address bar in Edge with Google as the default search engine have this issue.
When clicked on one of the search results on Google, they’re seeing redirection from “https://oksearch.org/xa2/click.html?<more here>”, to some other sites such as Amazon, Shopify, and others.
Redirecting from search links is happening randomly, but not consistently.
Most of the users confirmed their PCs came clean when scanned with Malwarebytes, AdwCleaner, and Microsoft Defender.
Microsoft Edge Community Manager, Missy said Microsoft is investigating the issue and suggests to disable extensions and report if they’re still seeing the injections after that.
A little bit of searching for OKSerch reveals, it has a New Tab extension for Chrome and Edge browser.
Microsoft Edge and Google Search engine are the common things among the users with different extensions.
Recently Google has removed malicious extensions from Chrome Web Store that injected ads into search results, Microsoft also did that for few adware extensions in Edge Add-ons Store.
Are you affected? Does your Search results in Edge redirect to elsewhere? Let us know in the comments below
Related articles:
New Microsoft Edge lets you add comments to PDF Documents
Microsoft rolling out Full Page Screenshot feature to Edge Canary users
Microsoft Edge soon lets you move tabs from one Profile window to another
Microsoft Edge soon can natively create Links to text
