If you Google (or Bing) for any number of open source applications, the first result will be an ad at the top that takes you somewhere other than the real site. Here’s just a few of the applications we’ve noticed this happening on, but there’s a ton of others.

Id: 246

A very pertinent warning from the How-To Geek:

If you Google (or Bing) for any number of open source applications, the first result will be an ad at the top that takes you somewhere other than the real site. Here’s just a few of the applications we’ve noticed this happening on, but there’s a ton of others.

• Audacity
• VLC
• Gimp
• MPlayer
• 7-Zip
• CCleaner

As I write this, the problem seems to have been fixed on Google, at least — Google searches return the proper site as the top result. (Or there was no problem, but I wouldn’t expect howtogeek.com to make this stuff up) Still, I added in the links above in case you’re looking for one of the programs mentioned. In general, whenever you’re downloading a program, do some research and make sure you’re getting it from the original source! Search engine gaming is a big business these days and a little caution goes a long way.

P.S. Although I don’t want to be a hardcore Linux evangelist, this is one of the benefits of running Linux: all your programs are installed through a package manager which verifies these things for you.