Can Google search results cause virus infection?

[loosley]

I was doing a Google search which returned some sites that McAfee Site Advisor said were untrustworthy. However, I did NOT click on the search results, I just looked at the list of web pages returned by Google.

Question: can looking at Google search results for infected websites also infect my computer? I'm talking about just the Google results page which contains the link to the page, NOT the actual infected page itself.

 

[casualcolors]

As much so as sitting on a public toilet seat can give you HIV.

 

[Gman450]

No.

 

[sgtpepper500]

As much so as sitting on a public toilet seat can give you HIV.

No. When I read casual's post I nearly laughed out loud in the middle of my class :lol:.

 

[HEXiT]

simple answer is no... on the most part... some browsers have extensions on them like avg which read the page and tell you if its safe... this can cause an infection if avg doesnt recognise the infection and stop it which is more than likely as avg is pretty poor...
so its actually safer to use a browser that doesnt have such addons...
i guess your new to web surfing asking such a question... to make sure your safe get an antimalware app that does actively realtime scan. malwarebytes and emsisoft antimalware are 2 great 1s... they will block malicious sites and will catch 95%+ of all infections which is about as good as it gets...
also make sure you run a decent antivirus... avira/bitdefender/nod32/kaspersky are some of the best but only avira is free from that short list and is 1 of the better 1s even in the group i just listed.

 

[korpsicle]

If you're looking for free, Avira. If you're looking for paid software, KAV (Kaspersky) or Webroot.

Don't bother with McAfee, I've seen it destroy more systems then fix.