Don't Hide Malware With A Web Extension

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]Sometimes I come across something where I genuinely don't know if I'm being trolled or... What's a nice way to say this?

[00:00:09]The creator is not the brightest light bulb in the house.

[00:00:15]A less nice way to say it is, uh, has a room temperature IQ.

[00:00:20]Someone sent me this.

[00:00:22]Finally built a solution preventing Yahoo taking over my Chrome.

[00:00:27]You read that and you're probably thinking, What do you mean Yahoo is taking over your Chrome?

[00:00:34]That doesn't even make sense as a problem.

[00:00:38]And we'll get to that.

[00:00:40]So I was basically annoyed by Yahoo taking over my Google search engine every other day.

[00:00:45]And I had to go to the settings and change it every time.

[00:00:48]So I built this extension which prevents that.

[00:00:51]And you won't even realize if your search engine gets taken over.

[00:00:54]What it basically does is redirect your queries to your selected search engine whenever it detects that Yahoo has taken over.

[00:01:01]It does this automatically so you don't have to go into settings again and again.

[00:01:06]You can also choose the search engine according to your preference.

[00:01:10]This is dumb.

[00:01:13]This is not the way that you fix this problem.

[00:01:15]But if you've ever used a computer, especially used a computer on Windows, You probably know exactly what has happened here.

[00:01:28]But if you do a search for this problem, you are going to be so very depressed.

[00:01:38]My browser keeps changing on Chrome.

[00:01:42]It's either Yahoo or Bing.

[00:01:44]There are no suspicious extensions.

[00:01:46]I have deleted every other browser and kept Google as my default.

[00:01:49]I have tried resetting my Google settings.

[00:01:52]I've even deleted Chrome and installed it again.

[00:01:54]And it keeps happening.

[00:01:55]I have tried basically everything and it is still like that.

[00:01:59]What can I do?

[00:02:00]Why my Google Chrome default search engine keeps going to Yahoo.

[00:02:05]Maybe if I clear the history of something, it can always go back to Yahoo search.

[00:02:09]Please help.

[00:02:10]My browser keeps changing to Yahoo and it's really pissing me off.

[00:02:14]So fix it, please.

[00:02:15]I just did.

[00:02:17]Are they replying to themselves?

[00:02:19]What makes it even worse is that's just a small handful of them.

[00:02:25]If you search Yahoo search engine blocker and search through the Google support site, you will see a lot of these posts.

[00:02:34]There are these people that have no idea how to use a computer.

[00:02:42]They cannot be trusted with a computer.

[00:02:45]They just install random applications, install random extensions.

[00:02:50]If there is a checkbox in the application they want to install, they check the box.

[00:02:55]And we're not talking about children, right?

[00:02:57]Like we've all installed some things in the past when we were like seven years old.

[00:03:02]We didn't know what we were installing.

[00:03:04]We found a free game.

[00:03:06]We found some free music and we did things to our computer.

[00:03:11]We probably shouldn't have, especially back when you could install custom toolbars.

[00:03:15]We've all done this, but we're talking about grown ass adults who keep making the same mistake.

[00:03:24]Worse yet, now making the same mistake where you can just write the problem into an AI and it will tell you how to fix it.

[00:03:35]No longer is this just the family computer that you've done something on that you probably shouldn't have.

[00:03:40]This is, man, I have, you know how I did that video on how people don't know how to use computers.

[00:03:50]This just cemented the fact that so many people have no idea what they're doing and just can't be trusted.

[00:04:02]With all of that being said, someone pointed out the problem.

[00:04:05]But frankly, most of you probably know what the problem already is.

[00:04:09]You have malware or bad software like McAfee installed.

[00:04:14]This is the only explanation of your search engine constantly changing.

[00:04:18]Your extension is more of a workaround than an actual fix.

[00:04:22]Reset your PC if you don't know the origin of the malware.

[00:04:27]You need to build an extension for your critical thinking skill as well.

[00:04:32]Respectfully, this is completely unnecessary.

[00:04:35]And the fact that you are doing anything to remove the root cause of the malware is crazy.

[00:04:40]As what one of the comments have said, you're only enabling bad behavior.

[00:04:46]Install malware bytes and run a scan.

[00:04:50]Please, God, no, no.

[00:04:53]I have an epic app with an epic original idea and I shout it out online.

[00:04:58]Hey guys, didn't I do such a cool heckin' thing?

[00:05:01]Send some love, y'all.

[00:05:03]Now, I don't dare install this extension on my machine.

[00:05:11]So let's go to a virtual machine.

[00:05:13]Welcome to Debian.

[00:05:15]Why are we on Debian?

[00:05:17]I happen to have a Debian VM lying around I wasn't using.

[00:05:20]So, this is the extension right here.

[00:05:24]We can basically enable it or disable it.

[00:05:28]And it tells us how many redirections were done and we can choose where to redirect to.

[00:05:33]By default, it's set to Google, but you can go DuckDuckGo or Bing.

[00:05:36]Right now, we are on au.yahoo.com because I'm in Australia and that's where the Yahoo link sent me.

[00:05:44]But it's going to work regardless of where you go.

[00:05:46]Let's say you search for Linux.

[00:05:49]Now, normally, it would take you to Yahoo search with the extension installed.

[00:05:59]Okay.

[00:06:04]Thank you, Google.

[00:06:07]Appreciate it.

[00:06:10]Are there even any bridges here?

[00:06:13]Yeah, okay.

[00:06:14]Yeah, okay.

[00:06:15]There's three.

[00:06:17]Look at that.

[00:06:18]Wow.

[00:06:19]Google.

[00:06:20]That right there is all the extension does.

[00:06:22]And you can also go and donate to the creator.

[00:06:26]I'm not going to click the link because it literally just takes you directly to his PayPal page.

[00:06:31]Like, no, nothing.

[00:06:34]It was just like the PayPal payment page.

[00:06:36]Someone said, This is not normal.

[00:06:39]You probably have some sort of Adware extension or program installed.

[00:06:42]I would rather remove that from my PC instead of trying to fix it by redirecting.

[00:06:47]Also, this looks 100% vibe coded.

[00:06:51]Yeah, I get your point.

[00:06:52]Ideally, removing the root cause is the best solution.

[00:06:54]No, no, no, no, no.

[00:06:55]You don't understand.

[00:06:56]It's the only solution.

[00:06:58]There's no like bet.

[00:06:59]No, no, no.

[00:06:59]There's no alternative here.

[00:07:01]It is the only solution.

[00:07:03]But in many cases, the source isn't that obvious or easy to find, especially for non-technical users.

[00:07:10]This is more of a fallback layer that keeps things usable instead of having to fix it manually every time.

[00:07:16]How does it happen more than once?

[00:07:19]If it happens more than once, you shouldn't be using your computer.

[00:07:23]And about the vibe coding part.

[00:07:25]I did use some AI for the front end.

[00:07:28]I see it as using tools to speed up development, not replace understanding.

[00:07:32]The core idea and implementation decisions are still mine.

[00:07:36]This plugin is entirely front end.

[00:07:42]The back end is if there is Yahoo in the URL, redirect you to a new page.

[00:07:49]That's like maybe 10 lines of JavaScript at most.

[00:07:55]And most of those lines are the different iterations of the Yahoo URL.

[00:08:00]But that raises the question.

[00:08:02]If you used AI to code this, why did you not use AI to solve the problem?

[00:08:11]You understand what AI is.

[00:08:13]You know how to use AI.

[00:08:14]Why did you not just ask the AI to fix the problem for you to identify things that could be causing issues?

[00:08:24]I want to show you some of the marketing pages for this because they're beautiful.

[00:08:28]Stop Yahoo from hijacking your searches.

[00:08:31]Automatically redirects Yahoo search to the Google.

[00:08:34]Silent.

[00:08:35]Instant.

[00:08:36]Zero effort.

[00:08:37]Blocks Yahoo search instantly.

[00:08:40]Redirects to Google automatically.

[00:08:41]Runs silently in the background.

[00:08:43]Zero performance impact.

[00:08:45]No, it has a performance impact because you've got to go and do like the redirection.

[00:08:49]So there is a performance impact.

[00:08:50]It's like objectively there.

[00:08:52]I also want to show you this.

[00:08:54]Because this is clearly a fake Google search page.

[00:09:00]I don't know if this is... I don't think this is AI generated.

[00:09:06]I'm not seeing any weird artifacting here.

[00:09:09]Which indicates to me that for some reason, you handmade a Google search page.

[00:09:16]I know it's handmade because the text is off center here.

[00:09:18]That's not the Google logo.

[00:09:20]I don't know why you went and handmade a fake Google search page.

[00:09:26]Assuming I'm not being trolled now.

[00:09:28]What I think this is, is a very misguided person who thinks they are fixing a problem that needs to be fixed.

[00:09:34]When instead what is happening is, this is an extension which is hiding an actual problem that should be resolved.

[00:09:44]This is like actually just making it harder to resolve a real issue.

[00:09:49]Because let's say you ever actually go and want to use Yahoo.

[00:09:54]And then you forget you have this extension installed.

[00:09:57]Now you have a situation where basically you've created a further additional problem.

[00:10:03]Whilst I can't see the creators post history on Reddit, they have been replying to some of the comments on this spread.

[00:10:09]Someone said, lol you got a virus and just decided to live with it.

[00:10:13]This is more like a safety net for cases where people either can't find what's causing it or keeps coming back.

[00:10:18]Instead of going to settings every time, this just keeps things working in the background.

[00:10:22]Not a replacement fixing the issue, just making the experience less annoying.

[00:10:26]Now some people have been saying, oh these replies are AI generated.

[00:10:30]No, no, no. An AI generated reply would make considerably more sense than what is being written here.

[00:10:36]My house is burning down, but it's kind of annoying.

[00:10:39]So open the window and put on noise cancelling headphones.

[00:10:42]That's basically what's being said here.

[00:10:45]But that is kind of bad because you don't know what that thing is going to do in your system.

[00:10:49]And you are just shutting everything off that's making you notice it.

[00:10:52]It's not shutting things off silently.

[00:10:54]Just redirecting. I thought you said it was doing it silently.

[00:10:56]Didn't the marketing here say it was doing it silently running in the background?

[00:11:03]So is it silent or is it not silent?

[00:11:05]Just redirecting searches back to what you've already chosen.

[00:11:08]Mostly it's done by bloatware like McAfee.

[00:11:10]Other stuff that comes pre-installed.

[00:11:12]So mostly just harmless.

[00:11:13]This tactic is mostly used to promote Yahoo search engine.

[00:11:16]Even if it's just bloatware, that doesn't mean you should just leave it running in the background.

[00:11:27]Just fix the problem.

[00:11:29]Why would you do it like this?

[00:11:31]Just fix the problem.

[00:11:33]Clearly, you know what the problem probably is.

[00:11:38]So it's not like you're even confused about that part.

[00:11:41]You know what the issue is.

[00:11:44]So fix the issue.

[00:11:46]Whilst I do not recommend you go and install the extension, I do think you should go and look at the extension page on the Chrome web store.

[00:11:54]Thankfully, it has not yet been deleted.

[00:11:57]And thankfully, only nine people have downloaded this.

[00:12:01]It's nine too many.

[00:12:04]But it could be much worse.

[00:12:05]The overview intercepts Yahoo search queries and redirects them to your preferred search engine.

[00:12:11]Yahoo search redirect automatically intercepts Yahoo search hijacks and sends your queries to the search engine you actually want.

[00:12:17]Google, DuckDuckGo, or Bing.

[00:12:19]I feel like this is probably AI generated.

[00:12:23]Especially it gets to listing things.

[00:12:26]Many software installers silently change your default search engine to Yahoo without asking.

[00:12:31]This extension catches every Yahoo search URL the moment it fires and redirects before the page even loads.

[00:12:36]So you always end up where you intended.

[00:12:39]Features.

[00:12:40]Redirect Yahoo searches to Google, DuckDuckGo, or Bing.

[00:12:43]Your choice.

[00:12:44]Works across all Yahoo regional domains.

[00:12:47]Yeah, of course, because it's looking for search.yahoo, which is the same everywhere.

[00:12:52]Live redirect counters so you can see how often it saves you.

[00:12:55]Wow.

[00:12:56]Wow.

[00:12:57]Statistics.

[00:12:58]One click enable slash disable.

[00:13:00]Being able to disable it is not a feature.

[00:13:04]Fully offline.

[00:13:06]No data leaves your browser ever.

[00:13:09]It had better be fully offline.

[00:13:11]There's no... All you're doing is running like two lines of JavaScript in the background.

[00:13:16]Ha ha ha.

[00:13:18]This extension stores only your preferences.

[00:13:20]On-off toggle.

[00:13:21]Chosen engine.

[00:13:22]Redirect count.

[00:13:23]Locally new device using Chrome's built-in storage.

[00:13:25]Nothing's collected, transmitted, or shared with anyone.

[00:13:29]No ads.

[00:13:30]No tracking.

[00:13:30]No login required.

[00:13:32]Now, for some reason, one of the reviews here, uh, I don't know why, because it's just not true, says that things are behind a paywall.

[00:13:40]There's no features behind a paywall.

[00:13:42]There's no features.

[00:13:44]Like, at all.

[00:13:44]I have a feeling this might be one of their friends.

[00:13:48]Wait.

[00:13:49]The creator's name on the extension was Vidit Jane.

[00:13:53]This is Vidit Blasters.

[00:13:56]Is this their alt account?

[00:13:59]Did... Sure... Surely they did... Like, this has three ratings.

[00:14:05]This has nine users.

[00:14:06]There is no way some other person named Vidit came along and reviewed it.

[00:14:12]This is their alt account.

[00:14:14]They are... They... They gave their own extension five stars.

[00:14:21]Absolute.

[00:14:22]Utter.

[00:14:23]Amazing gold.

[00:14:25]I did not realize that was there before.

[00:14:27]So... I don't think you should install this extension.

[00:14:31]I don't think anyone should install this extension.

[00:14:34]This extension shouldn't exist.

[00:14:36]Don't be mean to the developer.

[00:14:38]They just wanted to make something.

[00:14:40]Well, the AI wanted to make something.

[00:14:45]Um... I'm just... I'm just so confused by why some things even exist.

[00:14:49]It's one thing if you want to do something on your own system.

[00:14:52]But then to actually go and release it for other people to download?

[00:14:59]Why?

[00:14:59]Just... Just... Why?

[00:15:02]Anyway, um... If you liked the video, go like the video.

[00:15:06]That's the wrong page.

[00:15:07]Go subscribe.

[00:15:08]All that good stuff.

[00:15:10]Do you think this is serious?

[00:15:11]Do you think it's a troll?

[00:15:13]Considering they reviewed their own extension?

[00:15:15]Could be either.

[00:15:16]I actually don't know.

[00:15:18]So... Let me know your thoughts down below.

[00:15:21]If you liked the video, go like the video.

[00:15:23]Go subscribe as well.

[00:15:24]And if you really liked the video and you want to become one of... of these amazing people over here, check out the Patreon, SubscribeStar, Liberapay linked in the description down below.

[00:15:35]That's going to be it for me and... Don't do this.