Search.yourmapscenter.com

Posted by Lisa Blanc on February 10, 2016

What is Search.yourmapscenter.com?

If you travel a lot and need a useful tool with quick links to websites that provide interactive maps and directions, Search.yourmapscenter.com browser extension might come up as a choice; however, our malware researchers would like to warn you that this tool is quite unreliable, to say the least. Having this extension in your browsers may indicate that your computer has been infiltrated by a browser hijacker. Of course, it is also a possibility that you have installed it knowingly, but it is still a browser hijacker since it can change your browser settings. This hijacker seems to modify mainly your home page and new tab page settings and it affects Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, and Google Chrome as well. Leaving this browser hijacker active could lead to multiple exposures to potentially unreliable third-party web content. If you do not want to let more malware infections onto your computer or get scammed by cyber criminals in other ways, we suggest that you remove Search.yourmapscenter.com as soon as possible. About the whys and hows, please learn from the rest of this article. test test test

Where does Search.yourmapscenter.com come from?

While this useless browser extension has an official page (yourmapscenter.com) where you can install it directly, our specialists at Anti-Spyware-101.com do not believe that this is the major distribution channel for this browser hijacker. As a matter of fact, reports show that this hijacker mainly spreads in free software packages. If you find this extension in your browsers and you do not know or remember how it has got there, there is a good chance that you have let a whole bundle of malware infections on board. Therefore, it may come handy for you to learn how it is possible at all – to download such bundles that is.

The main source for such malicious software installer packages is suspicious and questionable file-sharing websites. The sites belonging to this “category” include pornographic, torrent, and freeware pages. These are the ones that host tons of unsafe third-party ads, but there could be downright fake sites among them with fake content as well. Landing on such sites is always risky and usually comes with a price. The minimum harm you can cause your computer is to be exposed to more malicious sites on “automatically” opened new tab pages or download bundles containing several malware threats. If you click on any content on an unfamiliar website, there is a good chance that you download such a package. However, it is also a possibility that there are adware applications on your computer that generate unreliable third-party ads, such as pop-ups, and you click on one while surfing the web. All in all, you need to be extra careful which sites you visit and which advertisements you click on. If you are not certain about how this browser hijacker has ended up on your computer, you should definitely run a malware scanner on your computer right after you delete Search.yourmapscenter.com

How does Search.yourmapscenter.com work?

Our researchers have discovered that this hijacker is completely identical to Search.searchlttrn.com, Search.yourpackagesnow.com, and Search.youremailnow.com. These tools have only one goal, and you can be sure it is not providing you the best technology available to find the best matching pages with regard to your search keywords. Unfortunately, there is only one interest behind this search page, and that is to generate web traffic to affiliated third-party websites. This tool may not only use its search tools it offers on a fake toolbar and on the page as well, but it may also exploit the other third-party services, i.e., the quick link buttons, for example, to Google Maps and the local weather-related websites. It is possible that this hijacker can inject third-party ads and links into those pages.

You also need to know that this search page does not even display its own results. Instead, it redirects your queries through the extsearch.maxwebsearch.com server to a potentially modified Yahoo search results page. This is how it is possible that this hijacker can manipulate the results and introduce you to potentially unreliable websites. Clicking on such links or ads may take you to unsafe websites. The consequences can be the same as in the case of landing on any malicious site, as we explained above. If you do not want to experience more infections or other online scams, you should not hesitate to remove Search.yourmapscenter.com from your computer.

How can I delete Search.yourmapscenter.com?

Whether this browser hijacker has a working uninstaller or not, might be dependent on the version you download. But, even if you are “lucky” to have one, you should know that it may only take care of the Internet Explorer setting changes. Therefore, we believe that it is best to reset all your browsers to get rid of this useless extension and the changes it has done. If you are unfamiliar with your browsers’ settings, please use our instructions below as a reference. Remember that there may be other malware threats on board that you need to tackle in order to restore the security level of your PC. Keep all your programs always up-to-date so that your system is less vulnerable to cyber criminals and their malicious agendas.