Home/ Questions/Q 131875
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-05-11T06:10:27+00:00

When I do a google search for any string it is retuning a blank

  • 0

When I do a google search for any string it is retuning a blank page. The html source of the returned page looks like this.

<html> <body> <META HTTP-EQUIV='Refresh' CONTENT='0; URL=http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=test+search&meta=&safe=active'> </body> </html>

i.e. there is nothing at all returned to the browser.

But, when I search using google’s IP address in the address bar (rather than typing google.com), the search returns required results. (doesn’t return blank page anymore).

Why is this strange behavior happening? I am dead certain that it is not blocked at firewall as other users in the network with same access rights as mine are able to work normally with google. And neither is it any setting in the browser.

And it looks to me as if the search request when I search using domain name (google.com) doesn’t reach google server at all.

Conceded that it is not a programatical question and though I am able to search using google’s IP adress, the issue when using domain name remains an unanswered puzzle to me.

What could be the reason for this rather strange behavior?

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Someone’s probably hijacked the google.com address on your PC. Try a ping of google.com and see if the address resolves to the same IP as you think it should. Otherwise, they may have hijacked your browser (such as a BHO under IE).

    In any case, you’re right, this isn’t really programming-related.

    EDIT: I’ve just typed that source into a HTML file on the hard drive and changed the 0 to a 5. It successfully refreshes me to Google after 5 seconds which is what I’d expect yours to do.

    But, this sort of page-initiated meta-refresh can be disabled in some browsers. For example, if you bring up ‘Tools’ menu, ‘Internet options’, ‘Security’ tab in IE6, you can disable meta-refresh (under ‘Miscellaneous’).

    This may be worth looking into, and it depends on the browser you’re using. Try typing this exact content into a file x.html and double-clicking on it:

    <html><body>     <META HTTP-EQUIV='Refresh' CONTENT='0; URL=http://xxx'> </body></html>

    It should complain about not being able to find xxx. If not, then your browser has somehow disabled meta-refresh (in which case, tell us the browser you’re using).

    Have a look here to see how this is meant to work.

    • 0