A couple days ago, I was checking out film blogger and columnist Jeffrey Wells’ Hollywood Elsewhere and learned that his site was blocked by Google Chrome and Firefox because those browsers suspected his site contained malware. By that time, he had already gotten the problem fixed, but only after fretting over it for several hours during Christmas Eve.
I was thinking, “What a bummer. His Christmas was pretty much ruined. I’m glad he got it fixed though. I’m also glad I didn’t have that problem.” I forgot to knock on wood.
It happened to me today. Google had suspected that Wopular contained malware yesterday, so both Chrome and Firefox (which also uses Google’s malware detection tool) were blocking access to certain pages on Wopular. I didn’t noticed the block until today, after clicking on some pages and getting the “The Website Ahead Contains Malware!” notice from Chrome. I also got a similar message from Firefox.
I’m thinking if I don’t get this fixed soon, they might block the entire site.
I went to Google’s Webmaster Tool, and, sure enough, got a message with the subject: “Severe health issues are found on your site.” Following the links in the message got me to “Health > Malware” with a list of offending pages. The type of “harmful code” is “code injection.” Clicking any of the offending pages displays the offending code: the ad code from AdExcite, an ad network that I’m using.
Apparently, AdExcite has been attacked by malware, and every site who’s using them is being blocked by Chrome and Firefox. I’m removing their ad code from the site and requesting a review by Google.
This will probably take a couple days to fix.
I wish that AdExcite would have contacted me and made me aware of their malware issue. Their publishers are losing lots of traffic because of the browser block.
Of course, it has to happen on New Year’s Eve. I would rather waste my time making up a new year’s resolution that I know, for sure, I would break rather than stressing over technical issues like this.
Anyway, have a stress-free and happy new year!
UPDATE: Google fixed it within a day. I guess they do work on New Year's.
