More than 5 percent of all Google visitors is infected with adware and from this group, at least 50 percent has two or more "ad injectors" installed. This is software that injects or replaces advertisements on websites. The information comes from research performed by the University of California that will publish the entire report on the 1st of May but of which Google already published most important details.
Ad injectors are a large problem for both Windows as Mac users browsing with either Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome, according to the search giant. The adware is often bundled with other applications or offered through advertisements. Since last January, Google received more than 100,000 complaints from Chrome users about advertisements that were injected in webpages. According to company it's the largest problem users complain about.
The researchers also discovered 192 misleading Chrome extensions of which 14 million internet users around the world have become a victim. Also 34% of Chrome extensions that inject advertisements can be classified as malware. To protect internet users against adware and other malicious software, Google warns Chrome users since the end of February for websites that offer these kind of applications. Last week Google also made this feature available for Mozilla, Apple and other parties.
