(Yes, this is random and off-topic but I am putting it out there in hopes it might help someone else).

I don’t think the browser I use matters because this, I believe, has happened on various browsers.  (Just tested it out on a couple of other browsers and I couldn’t replicate the problem, so perhaps it’s browser specific…)  I will mention that I have GOOGLE set as My default search engine.

So this morning I typed “b movies” into the GOOGLE search box and instead of getting Google search results, I got the results in BING. Um, …..what?

Right away I knew something was probably wrong and starting searching for Google redirects to Bing and everything I came across said I had a browser hijacker and to run a Malware removal tool to get rid of it.

So I ran My Anti-virus program and it found nothing. Ran the Malware scan and nothing. Searched Reddit and Youtube and decided to Restore My browser to original settings. And out of paranoia (lol), decided to completely uninstall it and reinstall My web browser.

I did all of that and then again did a search for “b movies” and STILL, after all of that it was still giving Me BING search results, even though I just set up GOOGLE as My default search engine.

WHAT THE FUCKKKKKKKK??? 😫

Feeling like I had exhausted all possibilities, I had a thought….

B…..Bing

What if putting B before a search will bring up the results in BING *regardless* if Google is set as the default???

So I tested it out by putting y (Yahoo) in front of movies and searched for “y movies” and lo and behold, it brought up the results in Yahoo!! Same as “D Movies” brought up results in DuckDuckGo. MYSTERY SOLVED! (Only wish it was BEFORE I uninstalled My browser…. 🤪)

But NO WHERE was this given as a possible reason for this happening. And in allllll the years I’ve been online and searching for things, I have never, EVER been redirected before. Has this always been a little shortcut for getting results from other search engines?? Because I missed the memo on that and now I’ve created more work for Myself today! Grrrrr. Oh well, shit happens, right? 😣 😭 🤬

The chances of this post coming up in a search result and ever helping another person with this particular issue is probably slim. But I had to put it out there in the interwebz anyway and this is My good deed for today. 😁

UPDATED to add:

Ha! Well there ya go! It’s been around for a while and apparently also works with Reddit and Wiki. Learn something new every day……lol