Search.powersearch.online

Search.powersearch.online is a new search tool developed on the Search.searchtheweb.today template. Even though its appearance suggests that it is an ordinary search provider, specialists have doubts about its trustworthiness because some users say that they have found it set on their browsers without their knowledge. Researchers at pcthreat.com have not categorized this search tool as a browser hijacker yet because its appearance might be directly linked to the installation of a suspicious browser extension instead, but it is definitely not the best idea to use this search provider as your default one. We hope that you will decide to remove it after reading its description too. If this is exactly what happens, you should manage to delete it from browsers yourself manually. It is not a harmful malicious application, so resetting browsers to default settings should make it gone. In case the term “browser reset” tells you nothing, you should take action only after you read this report. Also, you should let our step-by-step manual removal guide help you.

We are not going to try to convince you that Search.powersearch.online is malicious because it is not, but if you ask us whether or not you should use it as your default search tool, we would say – no. It will return you search results, you could turn off/turn on Private Search, and you will be allowed to change the appearance of the search tool, but you will also see some modified Yahoo! search results. They are not dangerous themselves, but there is a problem with them – they might redirect you to untrustworthy websites. Not all websites they lead to are untrustworthy, but you might eventually land on a dubious one if you search for the information using Search.powersearch.online. These websites will not necessarily promote malware, but there is a possibility that security-related problems will arise if you surf untrustworthy websites.

What else you should know about Search.powersearch.online is that it actively records information about users. If you open its Privacy Policy and read its beginning, you will find out that it promises not to record “any personally identifiable information.” It includes such details as your age, gender, address, telephone number, and login names and passwords. The fact that it does not record any personal details does not mean that it does not record any information about users at all. It is clearly written in the Privacy Policy document that Search.powersearch.online collects non-personally identifiable information and uses it for “general purposes, including but not limited to analyzing trends, administering the site, tracking user movements, conducting research, and providing anonymous reporting to internal and external clients.” These non-personal details include IP address, Internet Service Provider, browser type, cookie information, and more. These details cannot identify you personally, but since Search.powersearch.online is not fully reliable, we do not think that it is a very good idea to let it gather information automatically.

Specialists do not think that Search.powersearch.online acts as a browser hijacker. That is, it should not change browsers’ settings without permission. According to them, it is more likely that users install some kind of untrustworthy add-on, and it sets Search.powersearch.online without their permission. Also, Search.powersearch.online might come as a redirect. That is, users might be automatically redirected to it from another domain they open themselves or have it set on their browsers. There is a bunch of suspicious applications that can apply unauthorized changes, so you should not leave your system unprotected if you do not want to find a new untrustworthy page set on your browsers without your knowledge ever again.

Users usually do not set Search.powersearch.online on their browsers consciously. Instead, they find it set on them and cannot explain why it is there. Luckily, this search tool can be removed from affected browsers quite easily. You do not need to know much about malware removal to get rid of it because your only task will be to reset all those affected browsers to their default settings. It sounds harder than it actually is – follow our manual removal guide you will find below this paragraph. Alternatively, you can use an antimalware scanner to remove it quicker. The latter is, without a doubt, the easiest way to undo changes applied to browsers because you will clean your system with the click of a button.

How to remove Search.powersearch.online

Internet Explorer

1. Open Internet Explorer.
2. Tap Alt+T and click Internet Options.
3. Open the Advanced tab.
4. Click Reset in the opened window.
5. Mark Delete personal settings.
6. Click Reset once again.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Launch Mozilla Firefox.
2. Press Alt+H and then click Troubleshooting information.
3. Click the Refresh Firefox button at the upper-right part of the page.
4. Click Refresh Firefox.

Google Chrome

1. Start Google Chrome.
2. Press Alt+F and click Settings.
3. Click Advanced at the bottom.
4. Under Reset, click the Reset button.
5. Click Reset to confirm.