Google is Freezing.

October 21, 2015 8:50 AM

Why is Google search always freezing?

Google search often freezes my browser (Firefox) in Windows 8. Sometimes I can't finish typing in the box, sometimes it spins the loading logo forever, sometimes the page reverts to nothing, as if I hadn't typed anything in the box to begin with. If I reload the page, the problem often goes away, but it is annoying to do that so often. Interestingly, this only happens on Google search, and not on Google Finance, or any other sites. I have updated Firefox, and tried various other fixes. I am not signed up for a Google account.

posted by weapons-grade pandemonium to Computers & Internet (5 answers total)

My intuition is that this is being caused by malware on your system that's attempting to interfere with your searches, perhaps by inserting links to the result pages to get some ad revenue. Malware typically doesn't have a very high standard of software engineering and its bugginess is crashing your browser when it's attempting to do its thing.

People probably have recommendations on malware scans to try. I usually feel better completely wiping and reinstalling the PC in this situation, even though it takes extra time.
posted by zixyer at 9:12 AM on October 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Check Firefox's add ons and extensions - remove any odd-looking items that don't belong there. Run Microsoft Defender to check for any malware or spyware. Make sure Firefox and Windows is up to date.
posted by dubious_dude at 9:44 AM on October 21, 2015 [2 favorites]

Install Chrome and see if it works better with that browser. If it does you know that the problem is somewhere within your Firefox. If it doesn't you'll know you have a larger problem with your computer or internet connection.
posted by trbrts at 10:06 AM on October 21, 2015

I'm going to second trying out Chrome; I find that more intensive Google web apps (like the Drive/Docs/Sheets/Etc family) run way faster in their own browser. If you can't even run a simple search, you definitely have some serious malware issues.
posted by Juliet Banana at 1:01 AM on October 22, 2015

Response by poster: SOLVED. The malware thing never made sense to me, because no other links were affected, and all checks ran clean. After much Googling, I tried someone's recommendation to change my Google bookmark to "www.google.com/?t" (from google.ca). This appears to have fixed my problem.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 10:31 PM on October 25, 2015