SpicySEARCH

SpicySEARCH is a relatively new browser extension that introduces a new search engine; however, we are not convinced that it is fully reliable. In fact, this Google Chrome extension can be found spreading in questionable ways, which confirms that you are dealing with a potentially unwanted program (PUP). Our research shows that this PUP is most active in India, the United States, Canada, Pakistan, and the Philippines, but, of course, it can show up anywhere really. This search engine page might show you manipulated search results that might contain potentially unreliable third-party ads and sponsored links. It is also possible that the presence of this PUP indicates other potential or malicious threats hiding on your computer. All in all, we believe that you should not use or keep this extension on board if you want to avoid exposure to questionable third-party content this way. In fact, we suggest that you remove SpicySEARCH from your PC as soon as possible.

In all fairness, we must talk about the official channel where you can directly install this PUP. You can find this tool in the Chrome web store at chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/spicysearch/fkhmikadkeefioneejecgmdggfmekfak. On this page you can see that only over 2,800 people have installed this extension in the past month since it surfaced. Obviously, based on this number we cannot call this PUP popular at all, but this may not be enough for you to want to delete SpicySEARCH.

Only one month has passed since its launch and its promotional page has already changed. This web store page point to cp.spicystart.com as the official site; however, when you visit this page, you only find a message that says that the site has moved. In fact, this old page forwards you to spicystart.com, which is the search page itself, if you click the designated link. In other words, there seems to be no real official page apart from the web store, which is a bit strange since software developers usually have their own dedicated page, too.

The bad news is that this PUP can also be found spreading in deceptive ways, which really questions its intentions and reliability as well. For example, you may click on a third-party pop-up ad on a suspicious torrent website while trying to download a free or cracked program, and you may install this PUP right away even behind your back. But it is also possible that you drop a whole bundle of threats by clicking on the wrong content. You should avoid suspicious website and engaging with their contents as well if you do not want to end up with a bunch of PUPs and malware infections like adware programs, browser hijackers, fake alerts, and Trojans. If you may have installed this extension in a questionable way, you may want to run a reliable malware scanner to detect all possible threat sources after you delete SpicySEARCH.

This search engine page (spicystart.com) looks very similar to any other. It offers you four basic search categories in the top-left corner of the screen: Web, Images, Videos, and News. However, Images and News do not seem to work as they display no results. This is a bit suspicious. Otherwise, this PUP looks totally legitimate for the untrained eye. We have found that it uses iresults.ampxsearch.com to display search results. But the truth is, it is possible that this extension modifies the results by adding its promotional content, i.e., third-party ads and sponsored links, which may not always be trustworthy. If you click on an unreliable ad or link, you could risk ending up on a malicious website or dropping infections behind your back. This is why we advise you to remove SpicySEARCH as soon as you can.

Actually, the only good thing we have found about this PUP is that you can easily delete it by removing this undesirable extension via the Extension Manager of your Google Chrome browser. If you have never done this before, you can use our instructions below. Please remember that there could be other threats on your system as well. If you do not know how you can manually detect and eliminate them, we advise you to use a reliable anti-malware program, such as SpyHunter. But even if you use security software that can automatically defend your PC, we suggest that you keep all your programs and drivers regularly updated to avoid potential cyber attacks.

How to remove SpicySEARCH from your browser

Google Chrome

1. Press Alt+F to open the menu.
2. Select More tools and then, open Extensions.
3. Find the unwanted extension and click on the Trash can icon.
4. In the pop-up, press Remove.