Smoothsearch.online - How to remove

Smoothsearch.online is a new tab hijacker and a fake search engine. It does not have any useful features or functions whatsoever. All that Smoothsearch.online does is sit there and collect browsing data about its users. That data is then used for marketing and advertising purposes. In other words, Smoothsearch.online is entirely useless. It takes over the new tab page thanks to a browser extension called Smooth Search Tab. Remove it and you’ll get rid of Smoothsearch.online.

In short about Smoothsearch.online:

Type of threat	Browser hijacker, adware.
How Smoothsearch.online hijacks the browser	Smoothsearch.online replaces the new tab page, it posts a search box on this new tab to get people to use it.
Problems and issues	The new tab is replaced, data about searches is logged and used for advertising.
Removing Smoothsearch.online	Uninstall Smooth Search Tab and other suspicious extensions, check browser settings, check for malware with Combo Cleaner for Mac, Spyhunter for PC, others.

What is Smoothsearch.online

New tab hijacker

Smooth Search hijacks the browser by replacing its new tab page. The site that Smooth Search replaces it with is Smoothsearch.online. It is an extremely basic new tab page with a search box in the middle, links to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy at the bottom, and links to Gmail, Facebook, Youtube, and Amazon right under the search box. This does not imply that Smoothsearch.online is affiliated with those sites, only that whoever created Smoothsearch.online thought that those four links would be enough to liven up the empty and unfinished canvas that is Smoothsearch.online.

In my experience, using the search field on Smoothsearch.online simply leads to Google.com. Many people already use Google.com as their default search engine, so Smoothsearch.online might not appear too disruptive. However, there are a couple of problems.

First and most obviously, Smoothsearch.online replaces the user’s new tab in their browser. The new tab is, to many, a very useful page. People set their own background picture, pin a bunch of useful quick links, bookmarks, and most visited webpages. Some even use legitimate new tab browser extensions to customize their new tab to personalize it further.

Smoothsearch.online, on the other hand, is extremely basic. There’s no way to change any of it and yet it inserts itself unwanted. People use their new tab page as the gateway to the internet, as a sort of lobby. Smoothsearch.online completely wrecks that.

Spyware

Another problem is the reason why Smoothsearch.online replaces the new tab. It needs to in order to collect data on its users.

According to Smoothsearch.online’s privacy policy, some of the data it logs is:

• IPs of the users,
• browsing histories,
• search histories,
• other technical information, such as browser type, operating system, etc.

Some of the uses for this information, also described in Smoothsearch.online’s privacy policy, are marketing, ad tracking, and other commercial uses.

No, Smoothsearch.online shouldn’t be able to read your passwords or any such sensitive data. It is only there to help someone make money from advertising. In this way, Smoothsearch.online is much like the Safe Browsing redirects, only less intrusive.

How to remove Smoothsearch.online

The Smooth Search Tab extension needs to be removed from your browser. That’s easy enough to do – open your browser’s main menu (the three-dot button in the upper right), go to Settings, Extensions, and you’ll be on the extensions page. Here, you should see Smooth Search Tab – click the Remove button to uninstall it.

Smoothsearch.online is extremely similar to Super-pdf-convert.com and other Appnplay creations. With that said, check all of your other browser extensions. Are there any more new tab replacers, such as Streaming Lab Tab or The Global Weather Tab? Remove them, too.

Keep removing suspicious extensions until your web browser returns to normal. If Smoothsearch.online is still stuck as your new tab or some other issue is bothering you, follow the instructions below to restore browser settings after a hijacking.

As for how Smoothsearch.online got installed in the first place, there are multiple options: ads, pop-ups, and redirects online (possibly caused by adware), wrappers and bundled software, and various other methods that are often used by potentially unwanted software to infiltrate devices.

If adware or bundlers are a concern, have an anti-malware application (like Combo Cleaner for macOS, Spyhunter for Windows, or another one) scan your computer and check for adware and potentially unwanted programs. If any are found, remove them and be careful to not get any more. You can block malicious sites with some anti-malware applications that have a real-time web filter.

That said, it’s totally possible that Smoothsearch.online got into your browser thanks to a single unfortunate advertisement and that there’s no malware on your computer at all.

Automatic Malware removal tools

Remove unwanted browser extensions

TopHow To remove Smoothsearch.online from Google Chrome:

• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select More Tools→Extensions
  
• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.
  
• Click on the 3 horizontal lines icon on a browser toolbar and Select Settings
  
• Select Manage Search engines
  
• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list
  
• Go back to settings. On Startup choose Open blank page (you can remove undesired pages from the set pages link too).
• If your homepage was changed, click on Chrome menu on the top right corner, select Settings. Select Open a specific page or set of pages and click on Set pages.
  
• Delete malicious search websites at a new Startup pages window by clicking “X” next to them.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings

If you are still experiencing any issues related to Smoothsearch.online, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on a Chrome’s menu button (three horizontal lines) and select Settings.
• Scroll to the end of the page and click on theReset browser settings button.
  
• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.
  

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How to remove Smoothsearch.online from Microsoft Edge:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Microsoft Edge window. Select “Extensions”.

• Select all malicious extensions and delete them.

• Click on the three-dot menu on the browser toolbar and Select Settings

• Select Privacy and Services and scroll down. Press on Address bar.

• Choose Manage search engines.

• Remove unnecessary search engines from the list: open the three-dot menu and choose Remove.

• Go back to Settings. Open On start-up.
• Delete malicious search websites at Open specific page or pages by opening the three-dot menu and clicking Delete.

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Smoothsearch.online, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings

• Click on Edge's menu button and select Settings. Click on the Reset Settings button on the left.
• Press the Restore settings to their default values option.

• Click on the Reset button on the confirmation box.

If you cannot reset your browser settings and the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program.

How To remove Smoothsearch.online from Firefox:Top

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla window and select the “Add-ons” icon (Or press Ctrl+Shift+A on your keyboard).
  
• Go through Extensions and Addons list, remove everything Smoothsearch.online related and items you do not recognise. If you do not know the extension and it is not made by Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, Oracle or Adobe then you probably do not need it.
  
• If your homepage was changed, click on the Firefox menu in the top right corner, select Options → General. Enter a preferable URL to the homepage field and click Restore to Default.
  

(Optional) Reset your browser’s settings If you are still experiencing any issues related to Smoothsearch.online, reset the settings of your browser to its default settings.

• Click on the menu button on the top right corner of a Mozilla Firefox window. Click on the Help button.
  
• ChooseTroubleshooting Information on the Help menu.
  
• Click on theReset Firefox button.
  
• Click on the Reset Firefox button on the confirmation box. Mozilla Firefox will close and change the settings to default.
  

If the problem persists, scan your system with an anti-malware program to identify malicious entries.