SportSearchNow browser hijacker removal

SportSearchNow browser hijacker will set sportsearchnow.com as your homepage and nearbyme.io as your default search engine. Your browser loading those sites is a sign that your computer is infected with a browser hijacker. As far as computer threats go, this browser hijacker is pretty generic.  It comes from a family of browser hijackers that all look more or less identical to one another. SportSearchNow makes the changes to your browser’s settings in order to redirect you to sponsored websites.

 

 

SportSearchNow is a very generic hijacker that comes from a known family of hijackers. Other identical hijackers include WebMusicSearch, VideoSearchCenter, and ProSportSearch. They all push either searchlee.com or nearbyme.io, which are questionable search engines that insert sponsored content into legitimate results. Redirecting to sponsored websites is why hijackers exist in the first place. Fortunately, they do not directly harm the computer.

The first sign that this hijacker is installed on your computer is sportsearchnow.com loading as your homepage. SportSearchNow will set that site as your homepage and nearbyme.io as your search engine. These changes to your browser’s settings are done without your explicit permission and can affect all popular browsers, including Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox. It should also be mentioned that you will not be able to undo these changes as long as the hijacker remains installed on your computer. The whole reason these changes are done is to force you to use the nearbyme.io search engine which inserts sponsored content into results.

The sportsearchnow.com website is very generic and completely identical to the sites pushed by other hijackers in this family. It has shortcuts to a PDF converter, cryptocurrency and currency converters, and a calculator. But it’s mainly trying to force you to use the search box. If you do use it or perform a search via your browser’s address bar, you will be shown results generated by nearbyme.io. You will immediately notice that the results are full of advertisements. This is how hijackers attempt to redirect users. Engaging with those results is not recommended. While the majority of them will be harmless, it’s not impossible that you could be redirected to a site that promotes scams or hides malware. The results have little to do with what you were searching for in any case so there is no necessity to interact with them. We strongly recommend you remove SportSearchNow from your computer, the sooner you do it, the better.

You should also be aware of the hijacker’s data collection practices. SportSearchNow will track what you search for, what sites you visit, what kind of content you interact with, your IP address. Like most hijackers, SportSearchNow will not collect personal information. Nonetheless, there is no reason to put up with this kind of intrusive behavior. Especially because it shares the information it collects with third parties and uses it for advertisement purposes.

Lastly, you should be aware of how the browser hijacker was installed onto your computer in order to prevent future unwanted installations. Infections like hijackers, adware, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) use a method known as software bundling to install unnoticed to users. To put it simply, these kinds of infections come attached to free software as extra offers that are permitted to install alongside automatically. To avoid these unwanted installations in the future, you need to learn how to install free software correctly.

Browser installation methods

Less serious infections like adware, browser hijackers, and potentially unwanted programs (PUPs) install via software bundling, a rather sneaky installation method that is quite frowned upon. Software bundling is basically adding extra offers to free programs. Those extra offers are often the already mentioned minor infections. They are set to install alongside the program they’re attached to automatically and without requiring your explicit permission. So if the SportSearchNow browser hijacker is installed on your computer, you likely installed a free program that had it attached to it. It should be mentioned that the majority of free programs you download from unofficial websites will have these extra offers, so keep that in mind.

When something is added to a free program, it’s technically optional. However, to prevent its installation, you need to manually deselect it when installing freeware. But since the offers are usually hidden, many users are unable to deselect them. To make them visible, you need to opt for Advanced (Custom) settings instead of Default. The installation window will recommend using Default settings but that’s not a good idea. Default settings will conceal the added offers, and they will be permitted to install alongside. If you opt for Advanced settings, all added offers will be made visible. If something is added to the program you are installing, review all offers and deselect the ones you do not want. Generally, we recommend deselecting all offers because none of them will be useful to you. It’s also a questionable installation method and programs that use it should not be permitted to install. It’s much easier to uncheck a couple of boxes than it is to delete infections like SportSearchNow once they’re already installed.

Browser hijackers like SportSearchNow can also be advertised as legitimate extensions that would supposedly improve your browsing. Because there are many fraudulent/unwanted programs advertised as legitimate, it’s important that you do research before installing something in the future. Had you used Google to look into SportSearchNow, you would have seen many results that recommended its removal. If you don’t do proper research, you will fill your computer with junk programs that will take up space on your computer and negatively impact your browsing.

SportSearchNow removal

Browser hijackers are not particularly serious infections so you can remove SportSearchNow manually if you want. When it’s no longer installed, you will be able to change your browser’s settings as normal. However, if you have very little experience when it comes to removing hijackers, it would be recommended to use anti-virus software like WiperSoft. The program would uninstall SportSearchNow without you needing to do anything, as well as undo the setting changes.