Google acting up? More Pifts?

A bit earlier on Google worked just fine. During the day a did a search or two on Pifts, and suddenly Google is refusing to show me cached pages.

Error


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.

If you're continually receiving this error, you may be able to resolve the problem by deleting your Google cookie and revisiting Google. For browser-specific instructions, please consult your browser's online support center.

If your entire network is affected, more information is available in the Google Web Search Help Center.

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

Example


Screen Shot

Is this the next step of Pifts? Conning us to check for viruses? Anyone else getting this problem? Perhaps someone who didn't search for Pifts could do a similiar experiment?

[edit on 3/11/09 by Gaspode]

Not sure why you cannot perform the search. I tried to duplicate your results by googling pifts repeatedly and could not.

[edit on 11-3-2009 by tamusan]

Google does teh search just fine. And it opens up a search result just fine... It's when I try to look at the Cached page[ of a search result that I get the message...?

Some new viruses were made with the pifts.exe file name. You can either assume they were made for download for gullible computer users who think it's the Norton update, or you can assume it was made by Norton to keep users from receiving any valid searches from search engines.

[edit on Wed Mar 11th 2009 by DJMessiah]

I can view my cached pages without any problem.

Do you use Norton? I don't. If you use Norton, I would speculate that to be the cause.

I've had that Google error page before, and another one that had the letters you had to type in, except the letters formed strange words, and never did a thing to resolve the problem. It usually just goes away, so best to ignore it.

The pifts.exe issue has been solved..

www.thetechherald.com...

Still, I don't entirely believe the 'explanation'. And that's not the conspiracy theorist in my coming out a little more, it just seem ridiculously unlikely that they would 'forget' to sign an .exe as Symantec, in a major-ish patch.