Weird code showing up on youtube page, wondering if my computer has some Malware, spam etc.

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Level 1

9 points

Weird code showing up on youtube page, wondering if my computer has some Malware, spam etc.

I was surfing the web and just happened to be watching some youtube videos when I clicked to watch another video and this popped up. I quickly closed the window and tried getting directly onto youtube and searching a different videos, and the same thing happened. Right before this happened Google kept asking me to type in one of those security to codes to make sure I wasn't a "robot." I tried refreshing the page on that as well but it wouldn't let me continue on with my searches until I did.

Anyway, I'm wondering if this has anything to do with my computer. Like could I have some Malware or other virus junk or if this is youtube's problem. I'm always paranoid about getting virus and bugs even though macs don't get them as much.

Note: I was not logged into youtube when this happened, the only other window I had running was Facebook.

After waiting awhile and trying it to get on around 8 times, it finally worked again. I'm still curious as to what the heck was causing this??

Thanks for any advice.

MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.8)

Posted on Oct 26, 2012 8:40 AM

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Answer 1

thomas_r.

Level 7

32,001 points

Oct 26, 2012 12:26 PM in response to vinyl33

That looks like binary data being inappropriately displayed as if it were text. Most likely there was just a temporary glitch somewhere, maybe on YouTube, that was fixed, thus causing the problem to eventually go away as it did.

It's definitely not a characteristic exhibited by any malware that I'm aware of. But to learn more about Mac malware and how to protect yourself from it, see my Mac Malware Guide.

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Answer 2

Oct 26, 2012 12:51 PM in response to thomas_r.

It's NOT a virus or malware. I've been getting the same thing off and on for the past two days. Have no idea why, but I suspect YouTube is monkeying around with something on their end. I can watch videos just fine on every other website. And YouTube loads in Firefox with no problem. (I find myself using Firefox most of the time now, following this last Safari update.)

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