Magnifier Search

Magnifier Search is a funny little extension. It certainly does not act in a tremendously malicious manner. It does not show unreliable advertisements. It does not collect or leak personally identifiable information. It does not expose users to suspicious third parties. However, it is doubtful that many people would find this extension intriguing or even that useful. Our research team has classified it as a PUP – potentially unwanted program – and so you should not be surprised if a malware scanner or an anti-malware tool might identify it as a threat that should be deleted. If you want to learn more, you should continue reading. Once you are done, you will be able to decide for yourself if you want to remove Magnifier Search, or if this extension is attractive and useful enough for you to keep around.

The official website of Magnifier Search is magnifier-app.xyz. According to the information found on this website, the PUP is a tool that can help “Search online in a convenient way,” and also a tool that can offer “All the search tools you need, in just one extension.” Undoubtedly, some Google Chrome users would be intrigued by the utility of this extension. The website also offers access to EULA and Privacy Policy statements, which should always be reviewed before installing any extension. It is important to note that the official website does not introduce a direct installer. Instead, users are moved to the Chrome Web Store – chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/magnifier-search/ngbgojgpnjbhkolnnhihhddnokjfjnde. If you are routed to this page via the official website, you can go back to it to find important information. However, if you discover Magnifier Search directly via the Chrome Web Store, you are not introduced to the official website, and there are no links to EULA and Privacy Policy statements, which means that you cannot fully understand what the PUP offers and how it works.

According to the information found on the Chrome Web Store, Magnifier Search is a tool that “configures your Default Search,” and you can use it to copy and paste emoticons into emails and blogs. This is a little strange. Isn’t the PUP supposed to help you with web searches? Where are these emoticons coming from? If you choose to install the extension despite this, magnifier-app.xyz/s?q= should be set as the default search provider of your browser, and when you use it, it should redirect to Bing Search. Since you can always use Bing Search without installing anything at all, Magnifier Search both suspicious and useless. From what we have seen, the results that are shown are not modified, which is great news. However, that also means that the PUP adds nothing to the service. Therefore, if you want to use Bing Search, perhaps it is best for you to delete the suspicious extension and then set the desired default search provider. Even if it is not malicious or intrusive now, it certainly does not seem to offer anything of substance, and we cannot guarantee that it would not start operating in a more suspicious manner in the future.

Is Magnifier Search a dangerous threat? It is not, but it certainly is suspicious. In conclusion, it modifies the default search provider to introduce you to Bing Search, and this is unlikely to be what users expect from it, given that it promises to help browse the web in the most convenient way. So, even if it does not bother you that this PUP is represented via the Chrome Web Store in a non-transparent way, we are sure that you might want to remove it simply because it does not offer anything considerably useful. It is possible to delete Magnifier Search manually. You do not need to modify the default search provider (unless you want to set a different provider), and all you have to do is delete the unwanted extension. You can also implement anti-malware software to have the PUP removed automatically, but note that not all tools will identify the extension as a PUP/threat.

Magnifier Search Removal

1. Open your Google Chrome browser.
2. Tap Alt+T keys on the keyboard to access the Chrome menu.
3. Click More tools to see more options.
4. Click Extensions to find the list of all active extensions.
5. Identify the PUP and click the Remove button next to it.