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With the new Chrome update, I started getting a message at the top of Chrome:

enter image description here

When I clicked on Learn More, it took me to Com.com web site. A warning appeared before that "your connection is not private" but I ignored it as I thought this message is by Google. Now I'm confused whether my computer or chrome is hacked? Please give some clues.

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3 Answers 3

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It looks like there is a typo in the Chrome message. They repeated ".com.com" in the link.

Com.com, according to their site, is set up to take advantage of such typos:

As an example, if a user browses to “example.com.com” the user will see content, information and/or advertisements based off the word “example.”

So, no, com.com is not a Google site, and there does not seem to be an infection. Just a typo in the Chrome message.

As a side note: never dismiss error messages quickly. They exist to give people pause before doing things that might not be safe. In this case, it's an indication that things were not as you expected.

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    Thanks. Yes, that seems to be it. I sent a feedback to Google from chrome with the screenshot. But I doubt if they look at it.
    – user173399
    Commented Oct 3, 2018 at 17:05
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It does not look like it:

Here's the (shortened) whois record for com.com

Domain Name: com.com
Registrant Organization: Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Registrant Street: PO Box 639
Registrant Street: C/O com.com
Registrant City: Kirkland
Registrant State/Province: WA
Registrant Postal Code: 98083
Registrant Country: US
Registrant Phone: +1.4252740657
Registrant Phone Ext:
Registrant Fax: +1.4259744730
Registrant Email: [email protected]

Here's a whois record for google.com

Domain Name: google.com
Registrant Organization: Google LLC
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Country: US
Admin Organization: Google LLC
Admin State/Province: CA
Admin Country: US
Tech Organization: Google LLC
Tech State/Province: CA
Tech Country: US

And here's the record for chrome.com

Registrant Organization: Google LLC
Registrant State/Province: CA
Registrant Country: US
Admin Organization: Google LLC
Admin State/Province: CA
Admin Country: US
Tech Organization: Google LLC
Tech State/Province: CA
Tech Country: US

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    To be fair, something can still be owned by Google (as a subsidiary) but not use Google's trademark when registering a domain.
    – forest
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 12:18
  • The whois for firebase.com - a subsidiary of Google - also yields the same output as the one given by google.com, but it is possible nevertheless. That is why I started my answer with the somewhat indecisive "It does not look like it". ;)
    – Tom K.
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 12:25
  • It seems you're right. I checked a few of Google's acquisitions and they generally all use Google's NS. The only exception I can find (after looking at 5 or 6 sites) is Apigee, which was acquired in 2016.
    – forest
    Commented Sep 28, 2018 at 12:37
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Apparently not.

When you want to know who owns a specific domain name, then you can use one of the many whois service websites to find out. The service whois.com provides the following whois info:

DOMAIN INFORMATION

Domain: com.com    
Registrar: eNom, Inc.    
Registration Date: 1995-04-13    
Expiration Date: 2023-04-14    
Updated Date: 2017-09-27    
Status: clientTransferProhibited

CONTACT 

Name: Whois Agent
Organization: Whois Privacy Protection Service, Inc.
Street: PO Box 639
        C/O com.com
City: Kirkland
State: WA
Postal Code: 98083
Country: US
Phone: +1.4252740657
Fax: +1.4259744730

As you can see, the domain was registerd through the registrar enom.com and the identity of the owner of the domain is protected by a domain-by-proxy service. Google would not do this, so it is very unlikely that this website is under the control of Google.

Why your web browser redirects you to this website is a different issue. Maybe you were just baited by an advertisement banner which looked like a browser message. Maybe it was caused by malware. Diagnosing and solving this issue is not possible with the limited information you provide. But maybe superuser.com might be able to help you.

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