Google Says, ‘Sorry, You Search Like A Bot’

Lately a bunch of my searches have been foiled by a 403 Forbidden error message from Google. Can you believe it? Google, the giga-powerful near-deity of the web, hindering my surfing?

This is what it says:

We're sorry...

... but your query looks similar to automated requests from a computer virus or spyware application. To protect our users, we can't process your request right now.

We'll restore your access as quickly as possible, so try again soon.
In the meantime, if you suspect that your computer or network has been infected, you might want to run a virus checker or spyware remover to make sure that your systems are free of viruses and other spurious software.

I couldn't find a good spyware checker for my Debian laptop, but I'm pretty confident that that's not the problem. Nor are my searches so frequent as to seem automated. I tried deleting my Google cookies but that did not help. Another machine on my local network, with the same public IP address, has no trouble.

It doesn't inspire confidence! It certainly doesn't make me want to let Google host any of my data, as they seem so rabidly eager to do.

[edited to add:] OK, here's how to reproduce this one, thanks to amznVibe. Try searching Google for the two words "forum" and "topic" in the same search, and then go to the 19th page of search results. Sorry!

(For the record, I myself was not doing anything like that. I was searching for the single word "firebug" and I was looking at the first page of results. I wasn't using a wacky extension or proxy or anything beyond the norm.)

See Also:

• April 1 is the Annual Day Without Google