A really wierd thing has started happening with my computer the last month or so. When I google something and click on one of the results, it sometimes (say 40% of the time) takes me to a completely different but somewhat related website.

For example, today I googled 'seattle daily photo', and it took me to a booking website for flights to Seattle? Very odd.

Has anyone had this happen to them or know if it is a virus of some sort? Anything I can do about it?

Thanks lots.

It is called the google redirect virus. I would tell you to google it... but... from what I understand it is a malware issue so you will need a program that deletes malware/spyware. It seems that the problem is that there is no guarantee which of those types of software will pick up on the specific type of virus you have so it could be a bit of trial and error.

It is also suggested to do the following:
(1) Click START > RUN > and type in "C:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts"
(2) When prompted, open the HOSTS file in either Notepad or Wordpad
(3) Delete all the lines of IP addresses in the text document except for "127.0.0.1 localhost".

I found all of that here

I would suggest reading through some of the advice there. Or here

Hooray is correct, but you should do three more things PRONTO!

1. This virus often comes in with an e-mail that also phishes for your e-mail password, so change that now.

2. Check all of your credit and debit card statements. Someone with your e-mail password would have little trouble ferreting out a card number.

3. Check your recent e-mail for any messages supposedly sent by trusted contacts but containing a link and little else - especially if the message has no subject line.

Ahhhh I just thought of my bank account. Thankyou!

I'm still working on a solution to remove the virus but for now I'll just have to do anything that needs security at work instead of on my laptop. Awesome.