Answersite.com Search Result Ads - How to remove

Answersite.com is an alternative search engine that, on its own, is completely fine. I mean, it has too many ads, including shady ones like Taboola Ads – but lots of legitimate sites do. But some people noticed ads for Answersite.com in their own search results, like in Google.com or Bing.com. Ads that open Answersite.com and other search result sites are not normal – they’re injected by a malicious browser extension. Users often don’t realize this and try to use an ad-blocker or switch search engines – but the solution to getting rid of those ads is to find the malware responsible and remove it.

In short about Answersite.com ads:

What is Answersite.com	A search engine by CBS interactive.
Symptoms	Ads for Answersite.com and other search sites appear above and among search results.
Causes	A malicious secretly-installed browser extension, a browser extension turned rogue.
Stopping Answersite.com ads	Find and remove malicious browser extensions, check your computer for malware (Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, Malwarebytes, etc.

Why do you see ads for Answersite.com in your search results?

I found Answersite.com while looking at web analytics of adware sites and browser hijackers. I also found a couple of complaints, like this one, about seeing way too many ads in their search results – and Answersite.com featured as one of the sites that were being advertised in such a suspicious way.

Answersite.com is made by CBS interactive, so I was shy about writing about this at first. I doubt that CBS is in the business of adware. More likely, CBS wanted to promote Answersite.com and was not too careful about who to advertise with. It’s not uncommon for adware infections to promote legitimate products and sites and it doesn’t necessarily reflect badly on the advertised products.

Search engines make money by showing ads with search results, but they’re usually few and relevant to your search query.

Sometimes, though, you see excessive ads, including for Answersite.com and other search sites. These ads look realistic, but it’s pretty obvious that links to Answersite.com are not shown by your search deliverer (google.com, bing.com, etc.).

Advertising a search engine’s results is considered advertising arbitrage – the promotion of an advertising page. Imagine you click on an ad only to be confronted with more ads and no product. It’s frowned upon by many advertising companies and is often disallowed. For example, here is what the Google Ads policy says:

The following is not allowed:

Destination content that is designed for the primary purpose of showing ads

Examples: Driving traffic (through “arbitrage” or other methods) to destinations with more ads than original content, little or no original content, or excessive advertising

It’s arguable if Answersite.com breaches the above rule. It has a lot of ads but no more than content. Still, it’s agreed that search result ads linking to search result sites counts as ad arbitrage.

So, from what I’ve seen, the only way for people to consistently see search result ads that link to other search result sites is to have an adware infection on their computer or browser.

Adware browser extensions

According to web analytics, some of Answersite.com’s traffic comes from a bunch of alternative search engines. And not from good guys like Ecosia. Instead, you see deceptive “privacy” search apps and other sites distributed by browser hijackers:

• Visicom Media’s search sites,
• Handy-tab.com sites,
• Hidemysearches.com, Searchincognito.com, and other “privacy” hijackers,
• Info.com,
• Web-explore.com, etc.

These sites usually spread with the help of browser hijackers: extensions that, once installed, set your default search engine to one that generates ad revenue for the extension’s creators. Pretty suspicious that people are going to Answersite.com from these sites.

More likely is that you have not a browser hijacker, but an ad-injecting browser extension. These malicious extensions let you keep your settings as they are, but they change your webpages by injecting ads into them. Sometimes it looks like the page reloads after a second with the additional ads – that’s the bad browser extension messing with your webpage.

How to remove Answersite.com ads

To get rid of the browser extension that’s injecting Answersite.com and other ads into your search results, you do need to find it yourself – I can’t tell you which one it is, only that you should scrutinize all of them carefully.

Benign and honest browser add-ons can go rogue without you noticing. They can be bought by an advertising company, the developer can apply a new monetization model, or the extension could be infected with malware without the developer’s intention.

One clue is that the culprit extension will have access to either all of your websites or the main search sites (google.com, bing.com, etc.).

So, disable all of your extensions and start testing: enable the extensions one-by-one, search, and check if you see the ads. Perform the searches a few times to be sure. Once you see the injected ads again, you’ll know that the extension that’s currently enabled is responsible.

Alternatively, you could scan your computer with an anti-malware program, like Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, Malwarebytes, or another reliable security program. It would help you check if there’s malware on your device and, if there is, remove it.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Restore browser settings

TopHow To remove Answersite.com Search Result Ads from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Answersite.com Search Result Ads, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Answersite.com Search Result Ads from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Answersite.com Search Result Ads, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How To remove Answersite.com Search Result Ads from Firefox:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Answersite.com Search Result Ads related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Answersite.com Search Result Ads, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.