Google hates Doughnuts (and Advanced Search Strings)

17 Dec

Today, while I was writing my Google Search Guide, I was playing with the “..” google operator, and after some search requests I bumped in this 403 page:

google hates doughnuts .

We’re sorry…

… but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can’t process your request right now.

We’ll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon. In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

We apologize for the inconvenience, and hope we’ll see you again on Google.

To continue searching, please type the characters you see below:

Wooha, maybe I used a really strange search string…

Nope: my search string was “1..10 doughnuts”,

Ok, others have reported similar behaviors, but they were doing a bit more advanced (and suspect) searches .. what the hell is suspect in a doughnut search?? Anyway, after some research I found something more…

It seems there are two levels of filter… one with the captcha (as in the first picture) and one without the captcha, like the following one (search was inurl:.edu “1..10 doughnut OR doughnuts”)
google hates doughnuts

This one entirely forbids you to have your request served.

I’m ok with the captcha: it’s a bit annoying but if you’re human you can work it out, but what about the non-captcha page? A search engine that prevents you to use it’s own search functions? That’s so lame!

It also seems that some search strings can be directly marked as spammy (like inurl:.edu “1..10 doughnut OR doughnuts” ) while others are marked as spammy if they comes with lots of requests from the same IP. (try searching “1..10 doughnuts” a dozen of times in a spell)

I understand google’s need to protect itself from spammers, but what about our need for doughnuts?

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About: google, search, seo, spam, tips

11 Responses for "Google hates Doughnuts (and Advanced Search Strings)"

Mark December 29th, 2006 at 2:39 pm 1
It looks likeGoogle fixed this problem. Got some nice donut recipes though
Google Blogsearch Tips (And a Little Wordpress Hack) | www.mapelli.info January 7th, 2007 at 6:26 pm 2
[…] Google Blogsearch Tips (And a Little Wordpress Hack) Google blogsearch offers some of the default google search operators and other less-known operators. Here they are, with some tips and a wordpress hack Oh, as always, google is a little nervous when using advanced search strings, so sometimes it returns a 404 not found… it’s just trying to display the well-known 403 because it finds the search a bit suspicious… but the page is missing… […]
francesco mapelli January 14th, 2007 at 10:36 pm 3
Mark, I don’t think the problem has been fixed… I still get those lovely 403 after a few “spammy” searches …
drzimp January 18th, 2007 at 11:07 pm 4
A question or two.. (I’ve been awake for almost 36 hours and am brain dead, so heres hoping I dont make an ass of myself)

The query: inurl:.edu “1..10 doughnut OR doughnuts”

wouldn’t .. inurl:.edu “1..10 doughnut” .. work the same, since (IIRC) google should auto look for plurals? Or would plurals not be auto-applied here since quotes were used?

How were you submitting the query? From google’s form, by punching in the url, from some other script? (Im wondering if google checks referers here or not)

Your post doesn’t say explicity, so I’m wondering: After a few “spammy” searches, you got the captcha/denied page.. Did you follow through with the captcha? And if so, after a few more “spammys”, got the denied/denied page?

That is.. Is google keeping a session cookie or something similar? I know google uses cookies to store your settings, but have been too lazy to see if they use a session cookie..

Assuming they do use session cookies, and you _didnt_ follow through with the captcha, that could make the google engine a bit more paranoid, correct? (But you’re a good googler and did do the captcha. :D)

And then theres the bit of [quote]try searching “1..10 doughnuts” a dozen of times in a spell[/quote] .. That’d be hammering.

Ya know. Thinking about it, and I mean _really_ thinking about it. There were no auto-plurals, no session cookies, and no hammering. Google just doesnt like doughnuts.

I’m betting the google techs prefer bagels.
francesco mapelli January 22nd, 2007 at 2:19 am 5
drzimp : you won the “Longest Comment Ever” contest!!

wouldn’t .. inurl:.edu “1..10 doughnut” .. work the same, since (IIRC) google should auto look for plurals? Or would plurals not be auto-applied here since quotes were used?
if you check, the auto-plural does not works here, i think for the quotes

How were you submitting the query? From google’s form, by punching in the url, from some other script? (Im wondering if google checks referers here or not)
mainly with the firefox search box, but also with direct url and with google homepage… I didn’t notice different behaviors depending on the source of the query…

Your post doesn’t say explicity, so I’m wondering: After a few “spammy” searches, you got the captcha/denied page.. Did you follow through with the captcha? And if so, after a few more “spammys”, got the denied/denied page?
Something like that. If you keep on submitting spammy requests after the first denied page you’ll bump in the no-captcha page, but you can also go directly to the no-captcha if your requests are too complex

I think they use something like a cookie, but don’t know exactly… but if you don’t fill the captcha you have to wait a few minutes before you’re allowed to do a soft-spammy query, but there are no problems with basic queries (like “doughnuts”).

I think that google uses a function that depends from the query and the query-rate: you can be blocked by a lots of simple queries (since it’s something near hammering, as you pointed out) or by a few (or even a single one) complex queries.

Maybe I should add a poll… something like “donuts vs bagels”, and put an end to this never-ending war
The Matrix Google Has You | www.mapelli.info January 24th, 2007 at 2:55 am 6
[…] Oh, you can do some search, it’s full of advanced operators (but you can’t use that too much) and hidden tips, and you really find what you need. But you’ve to keep in mind, when you click the “search” button, when you read your mail, or whan you find the nearest pizza, that they give you all this stuff for free because they’re selling your attention the the advertisers. […]
Daredevil November 6th, 2007 at 2:16 pm 7
This happened to me not long ago. I think they’re trying to completely control the internets.
Star Trek fan November 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm 8
Advanced search strings, okay, but… donuts?

Nooooooooooooo!!!!!
Turk Filmleri December 5th, 2007 at 9:47 pm 9
It looks likeGoogle fixed this problem.
SirCommy December 13th, 2007 at 3:32 pm 10
I don’t know what you understand by ‘google fixed this problem’, because it looks to me like it didn’t. I still get those 403 pages, rarely, but I do. Any thoughts on this?
Google Search Guide December 21st, 2007 at 2:12 pm 11
[…] google does not loves, you may bump in 403-Access denied screens like the one I showed to you in my Google hates Doughnuts (and Advanced Search Strings) article. Don’t be scared if this happens, nothing is wrong with you / your pc / your search, is […]