Gaming-search.com Redirects - How to remove

Gaming-search.com is a deceptive website that tricks people into installing its browser extension – GamingSearch. With its help, Gaming-search.com is able to read the victim’s browsing history and search logs, as well as control how they search the internet. Gaming-search.com can control what sites its user visits, which it uses to force them to see promoted content (ads).

Gaming-search.com in short:

Type of threat	Adware, browser hijacker.
How Gaming-search.com affects the browser	It opens unexpected sites, it directs search queries to Yahoo.
Potential problems	Gaming-search.com logs your search queries and browsing history, which could be bad for privacy, it can also open unexpected sites instead of search results, which is bad for productivity.
How to remove Gaming-search.com	Find and remove malware, including GamingSearch, with antivirus tools ( for PC, Combo Cleaner for Mac, etc.) and manually, block notification pop-ups from unwanted sites.

What is Gaming-search.com?

Search redirects

You may notice “Gaming-search.com” in the address bar of your web browser. It’s a site address for an alternative (fake) search engine.

When GamingSearch, the associated browser extension, takes over a browser, it changes its search settings. It makes it so that Gaming-search.com is the default search engine. But Gaming-search.com can’t search the internet, so it just takes the search query and sends it off to Yahoo.

The link to Yahoo seems to identify that the query came from Gaming-search.com, which makes it possible for some kind of reward, such as ad revenue, to be sent to the people behind Gaming-search.com.

Of course, Gaming-search.com can change what site it sends the queries to at any time. For particular search terms, it could open a promoted webpage instead.

Overall, Gaming-search.com is just a Yahoo redirect virus. It has a lot of similarities with Games-search.net, but is quite a bit more basic and under-the-radar. With Gaming-search.com, it’s easy to miss that it’s even there.

Spyware

Gaming-search.com does collect search logs. It needs to, in order to let Yahoo deliver accurate search results.

This is a privacy problem. Your search terms should be between you and your search engine. It’s why Google, Bing, Yahoo, and others use encryption (the little padlock next to a site’s address) – to protect your data from prying eyes. But Gaming-search.com gets around that by installing itself as the intermediary between you and your search results.

Not to mention, it can read your browsing history, which shows what other sites you visit and which ads and search results you clicked on.

Trojan

The way that Gaming-search.com spreads is also suspicious. It’s advertised on file download sites (including pirating websites and modding sites) and it pops up when you click the download button. It shows a message encouraging you to install GamingSearch.

There are a few types of messages and they vary in clarity. Some of them say something like “Hey, install this extension”. Others are more deceptive and just say “Download”. As these pop-ups for Gaming-search.com appear on file download sites, they can be really misleading. They can trick people into installing Gaming-search.com even when they don’t want to.

Luckily, at least one version of GamingSearch has already been removed from the Chrome Web Store.

How to remove Gaming-search.com

There are a few parts in stopping Gaming-search.com redirects:

• Uninstall GamingSearch from your browser.
• Check your browser and the rest of your computer for malware.
• Block web push notifications from unwanted sites.

Remove Gaming-search.com and other malware

Use an antivirus program, like Spyhunter for Windows, Combo Cleaner for macOS, and other scanners to check your device for malware. It’s common for malicious programs to be installed in groups of two and three. Gaming-search.com’s ads promote other malicious extensions and applications, plus,  it may have been installed together with one. So, it’s important to check.

You can remove the Gaming-search.com extension (GamingSearch) with an antivirus tool or uninstall it yourself, and if that doesn’t work (if your browser is “administrated” or “managed” and you literally can’t remove some extensions), check our post on how to deal with that – some system settings need to be fixed.

Block notifications

It’s possible that pop-ups from Gaming-search.com, Notify-service.com, Tiktok-labs.com, and other sites are showing up in a corner of your screen. This won’t go away with removing Gaming-search.com and needs to be fixed manually.

Open the affected internet browser. Go to notification settings:

• Chrome – type “chrome://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
• Safari – in the Safari menu, choose Preferences, Websites, Notifications.
• Edge (Chromium) – type “edge://settings/content/notifications” in the address box.
• Firefox – open Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.

Find Gaming-search.com and other sites in your list of sites that are allowed to send notifications. Change their permissions to Block/Deny.

You can block notifications completely if you don’t use them – How to disable Web Push Notifications.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Check browser settings

TopRemoving Gaming-search.com Redirects from Chrome

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Google Chrome window. Select “Settings”.
  
• Click “Extensions” on the left menu bar.
• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Newvideo-search.com. Click on the trash bin icon next to Gaming-search.com Redirects or other add-ons you want to remove.
  
• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.
  
• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.
  
• Restart Chrome.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Newvideo-search.com, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
  
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on the Reset 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 Gaming-search.com Redirects from Microsoft Edge:Top

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

• Go through the extensions list and remove programs you do not need, especially similar to Gaming-search.com Redirects. Click on the "Remove" icon next to Newvideo-search.com or other add-ons you want to remove.

• Press on the “Remove” button on the Confirmation window.

• If unsure, you can disable them temporarily.

• Restart Microsoft Edge.

TopRemoving Gaming-search.com Redirects from Firefox

• 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 Newvideo-search.com 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.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Gaming-search.com Redirects, 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.
  
• Choose Troubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

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