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Google Chrome on Windows double-underlines words on every page. On mouse hover I get an ad overlay from infolinks or similar. Is this a legit part of Windows Chrome or is it due to some kind of malware?

I understand that I can block these ads with an extension--I want to know why the ads are showing up in the first place. Isn't infolinks a competitor to Google's own AdSense??

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That’s definitely not a part of Chrome (especially since it is a third-party ad provider—Google is an ad provider, so you know they wouldn’t incorporate somebody else’s ads!); something else is responsible for that. – Synetech Mar 6 '11 at 21:25
@ekaj - Because this question is a poor question? – Ramhound Jul 23 '12 at 18:40
@Ramhound - oh, really? I wasn't aware. That explains the 1500 views. – ekaj Jul 23 '12 at 20:07

3 Answers

up vote 5 down vote

If advertisements are showing up on top (or front) of Google's normal advertisements, then you definitely have SpyWare in your system. Use these two tools to get rid of nearly all SpyWare (sometimes you have to run them in Safe Mode to get rid of the SpyWare):

  SpyBot - Search & Destroy
  http://security.kolla.de/

  MalwareBytes.org
  http://www.malwarebytes.org/

These tools are free, and I've had excellent success with them. Of course, I encourage people to donate if they find these tools to be helpful.

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Actually, Mike is not talking about Google’s ads. You know how on some web sites that use certain ad providers, some of the words on the page get double-underlined and when you hover over it, a popup displays with an ad “related” to that word? Mike is saying that this happens on every page, and is wondering if it is part of Chrome. infolinks.com/flash/demoBox.swf – Synetech Mar 6 '11 at 21:28
Oh, I see. No, those are done through JavaScript as well [as Google's ads] -- the JavaScript scans the web page (after the page has been downloaded) and dynamically modifies keywords its advertisers are targeting. I've added the DHTML and JavaScript tags to the question in case someone watching those tags would like to elaborate on these comments. – Randolf Richardson Mar 8 '11 at 17:06
up vote 2 down vote

If it's Text Enhance check here: http://botcrawl.com/how-to-remove-text-enhance/

Text Enhance (Text-Enhance) is a form of flash adware (categorized as a browser hijacker) which attaches to internet browsers as an extension and cookie without user consent.

[…]

  • Open Chrome, click on the Settings icon, and navigate to Tools > Extensions.
  • Select the Text Enhance plugin from the list of extensions, and click Uninstall or Disable.
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up vote 1 down vote

Users have reported these extensions to be sources of advertisements:

  • Fast Save
  • Premiumplay
  • Text Enhance
  • VidSave
  • Coupon Companion
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