OnlineSportsSearch Redirects - How to remove

OnlineSportsSearch (or Onlinesportssearch.com) is a browser hijacker that causes unexpected redirects when you search the internet. It does this by hijacking a couple of important browser settings.

Remove OnlineSportsSearch and other suspicious extensions, check your browser settings, and the problem will go away.

Most likely, you didn’t even install OnlineSportsSearch intentionally. It and other hijackers use deceptive tactics to infect computers. So, when removing OnlineSportsSearch, pay attention to your other extensions – some of them may need to be removed, too.

About OnlineSportsSearch:

Threat type	Browser hijacker, adware.
How OnlineSportsSearch works	It changes the settings of the browser, it redirects internet searches.
Problems and issues	Your internet search logs are collected by a disreputable company, the OnlineSportsSearch extension doesn’t allow you to change the default search engine setting.
How to remove OnlineSportsSearch	Uninstall unwanted browser extensions, remove malware with antivirus tools, like Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, and others, disable notifications from unwanted sites.

How does OnlineSportsSearch work?

It hijacks internet searches

OnlineSportsSearch is a browser add-on/extension. There is also the website Onlinesportssearch.com which works together with the add-on.

You might be curious about what it does. Does it help you find information about sports? Does it have something to do with streaming sporting events? Nope. OnlineSportsSearch may as well be a completely random name. It has no useful features. In fact, you might not even notice when it’s installed as, besides changing the settings in your browser, it doesn’t do anything.

Once OnlineSportsSearch is installed, it changes the default search engine setting in your web browser. No matter if you previously used Google.com, Bing.com, or another site, OnlineSportsSearch makes sure that Feed.onlinesportssearch.com is the new default search site.

Feed.onlinesportssearch.com is not really a search engine, it just opens Yahoo.com. This is why, after the installation of OnlineSportsSearch, your search results start opening in Yahoo.com.

In addition, OnlineSportsSearch or one of the adjacent sites might start sending you pop-up ads as notifications.

It collects user data

Besides trying to control how you search the internet, OnlineSportsSearch also wants to know what you search for and how:

• Your location and language settings.
• The search terms that you type into the address bar.
• The times of your searches.
• Which search results and ads you click on.

This is a huge privacy problem. OnlineSportsSearch is an unnecessary app that provides no functionality, and yet it’s collecting all this data in logs. Marketers and advertisers really want access to people’s search histories so that they can analyze their strategies, but also so that they can target ads to specific people with certain ads.

It might be easier to trust OnlineSportsSearch if it had a reputable company behind it, but that’s not the case – the people who made it seem to be the same as those who made Anysearchmanager and Linkury!

It’s advertised by pop-ups

But where does OnlineSportsSearch come from in the first place? You probably didn’t even mean to install it yourself, so what’s up with it?

OnlineSportsSearch is advertised on video streaming sites and on file-hosting sites. As a result, you are the most likely to encounter it when watching videos on pirating sites or trying to download a file or a program for free. Game mods and cheats, pirated programs are the types of items that are supported by some unsafe and deceptive advertisements, such as fake download links and buttons.

OnlineSportsSearch is promoted by fake download links, seemingly required (but not really) extensions, and other ads that try to manipulate people into adding an extension to their browser that they don’t actually want.

OnlineSportsSearch is only one hijacker in a big family of hijackers that all use similar tactics to spread: IStreamingSearch, OnlineStreamSearch, StreamBeeSearch, PDFConverterSearchHQ, PDFConverterSearchHD, and others.

How to remove OnlineSportsSearch

Remove unwanted programs and extensions

To stop the tracking, the redirects, and the pop-up ads, you need to remove OnlineSportsSearch from your browser. You should also check your other extensions and remove those that are suspicious.

You can use an antivirus program, like Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, and others to detect and remove malicious and unwanted items.

To remove a browser extension manually, you need to open the web browser that is affected, navigate to the Extensions page through settings, and remove or disable all the items that are unwanted.

Disable web push notifications

If Onlinesportssearch.com, Install.notify-service.com, or another site is showing pop-up ads on your screen, you need to open the notification settings in your web browser:

• Chrome – open Settings, scroll down to Site settings (under Privacy and security), click on Notifications.
• Edge (Chromium) – open Settings, click Site Permissions, Notifications.
• Safari – in the Safari menu, choose Preferences, Websites, Notifications.
• Firefox – open Settings, Privacy & Security, scroll down to Permissions, and click on Settings next to Notifications.

Find all the sites that are abusing notifications to show ads. In the drop-down next to each of their address, select Block. This will stop all unwanted notifications.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser extensions

TopRemoving OnlineSportsSearch 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 OnlineSportsSearch Redirects. Click on the trash bin icon next to OnlineSportsSearch 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 OnlineSportsSearch Redirects, 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 OnlineSportsSearch 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 OnlineSportsSearch Redirects. Click on the "Remove" icon next to OnlineSportsSearch 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 Microsoft Edge.