HotSearch.com

HotSearch.com is a search site that often is associated with browser hijacker-based attacks that redirect your browser to HotSearch.com by force. Although HotSearch.com hasn't been confirmed to condone these attacks, SpywareRemove.com malware researchers have taken note of HotSearch.com's unusual hair-raising privacy policy, which includes such caveats as HotSearch.com not being responsible for either the accuracy or safety of the very same search results that HotSearch.com provides. HotSearch.com is classified as a potentially dangerous site, but visiting HotSearch.com, by itself, is not a probable source of infection by malicious software. However, if your browser loads HotSearch.com without your permission or you see other symptoms of a HotSearch.com-related PC threat on your PC, appropriate anti-malware software should be used to attend to the problem.

What's Hot at HotSearch.com... Isn't Its Search Engine

HotSearch.com promotes itself as a humble search engine, but unlike a legitimate search engine, takes explicit steps to avoid any responsibility for the sorting of its results. Laid out in its privacy policy, HotSearch.com essentially asserts that any link generated by its searches may or may not be either safe for you to use or relevant to your search queries, which raises the question of why you'd want to use HotSearch.com in the first place.

HotSearch.com also conducts basic information-gathering campaigns through cookies, and while this information-gathering habit will not steal passwords or other personal information, it may be used to change your search results or advertisements from HotSearch.com. All of these facts don't necessarily indicate that HotSearch.com is in the business of promoting malicious content, but one last line in its privacy policy certainly gave SpywareRemove.com malware analysts an eyebrow-raising moment:

'Your use of the NA MEDIA® service shall constitute agreement to these terms and policies. This agreement is made in the Cayman Islands and shall be construed as if both parties jointly wrote it. All claims arising out of or relating to this agreement shall be litigated exclusively in the Cayman Islands.'

Chilling Your Browser's HotSearch.com Fever

Although there are several reasons to want to avoid HotSearch.com, if your browser is suffering from browser-redirecting attacks to HotSearch.com, you may find doing so to be challenging or impossible. Browser hijackers linked to HotSearch.com have not been found to be downloaded from that site, and most likely are the result of the installation of widely-distributed freeware programs that include low-level PC threats bundled with their installers.

Some of the symptoms of a browser hijacker, either associated with HotSearch.com or other sites, can include automated redirects, changes to your homepage, changes to your default search engine, pop-up windows, advertisements that are included in unrelated Web pages and links that are inserted into text content. Browser hijackers interested in promoting HotSearch.com have not been tied to any type of specific toolbar or plugin.

SpywareRemove.com malware experts recommend, at a minimum, using anti-malware software to remove low-level threats like a HotSearch.com browser hijacker as it's necessary. You also may wish to scan your computer for possible infections after any prolonged exploration of HotSearch.com's search features, which, as the site, itself, mentions, are not sorted with any regard for your computer's safety.