[asuffield]

(Tedious disclaimer: my opinion only, not speaking for anybody else. I'm an SRE at Google.)

One might describe it as a social botnet: somebody convinced a bunch of people to execute some code on their computer that sent automated search queries.

https://support.google.com/webmasters/answer/66357?hl=en

"Google's Terms of Service do not allow the sending of automated queries of any sort to our system without express permission in advance from Google."

Intentionally using a tool to send automated search queries is pretty clearly prohibited.

[tmpanon1234act]

This whole incident has convinced me to actually use a tool like this, so I'm going to write one and distribute the extension code for free. I promise you won't be able to detect it, so good luck.

I think anyone who wants the ability to obscure their search footprint should have it. And if you think otherwise, I'm doubly convinced it's necessary.

[tamana]

TrackMeBot turns 10 years old this summer: http://cs.nyu.edu/trackmenot/

[alblue]

What about if they were not performing the searches intentionally? What prevents someone paying to serve an advert that does exactly the same thing?

[tamana]

Does that mean any malicious website can shut down any web user's Google account?