Ask HN: Can anyone explain this Gsearch rabbit-hole? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Can anyone explain this Gsearch rabbit-hole?

4 pointsBaljhin3 comments

Okay this is very weird and even weirder to post to HN, but I don't know where else to share it (and I don't use most 'social media') and I'm really quite intrigued with what I've found, and would like the help of the community to determine how what I found is even possible.

I'll try to keep the description brief - as you'll be able to test this yourself and determine your own theories for the cause of this.

So I'm browsing YouTube and come across one of a zillion channels that looks clickbaity - 'Hook Global'. (This is NOT a promotion for it. In fact, I'm suspicious they're apart of what I've discovered.) Out of curiosity, I do on a rare occasion go to a channel's page and read their Description. As expected, this one has the atypical droll self-promotion.

I wanted to find out more about them, so a typical Google search I did. Down the rabbit-hole we go...

I had to do query:

> `"Hook Global" -site:youtube.com`

being they're a YT channel. My first search result showed a Linkedin item, which I later learned is their company page on LI. Skipping that! - for now.

Curiously, my second result was exactly this: https://www.hoover.org/research/michael-mcfaul-whether-us-helps-ukraine-comes-down-idiosyncrasies-mad-king

The only reason I clicked this link is that in GSearch's (what is it called - 'result summary'?), part of the "intext" is -

> "Go to channel Hook Global"

More on this in a moment.

For me, clicking on that link redirects IMMEDIATELY to a Youtube vid, even though the url is what you see above. The redirect is not even a channel for the link's host-site; instead to another channel.

(FYI I'm using Firefox with DoH configured, on Windows, and uBlock (the Manifest v2 version) with a ton of filter subscriptions - one or two of which remove tracking parameters.)

I thought this redirect must be a fluke, so I opened the link in a private window...Same redirect, to the same vid.

Okay, you might be thinking 'So what?'

Well, I did more gsearch queries (too much to describe here - except one, the LI page confirms 'Hook Global' webpage as 'hook.online' which redirects to 'hooknews.com', site for "Hook Media Network")

but ultimately this query is what I really want to report:

> `"Go to channel Hook Global" -site:youtube.com`

And this is what's stunning: (nearly) every search result is a hard-redirect to a Youtube video.

Not even to the Hook Global channel. Seems the videos are related to the search-result's Title, or to the site's owner. (I haven't done enough test to be conclusive.)

Try it yourself, to really appreciate what I'm describing. Here are some search results that came up on just Page 1:

https://cew.georgetown.edu/about-cew/

https://www.uticaschools.org/news/1822826/a-special-message-from-dr-spence-reflecting-on-black-history-month-2026

https://www.hoover.org/research/trumps-latest-bomb-watch-stanford-professors-blunt-take-sumit-ganguly-exclusive-h1-b

http://dartgo.org/250blackhawklive

https://z.umn.edu/ug-livestream26

https://www.jesuitnola.org/2026/02/27/dear-blue-jay-welcome-to-jesuit/

https://on.nyc.gov/44wHbdO

Finally, I did switch over to Chrome, which also has uBlock, and a different DoH server configured - same effect. (Curiously most of the results had '/link/' in their URL path.)

I also went to my phone and ran the query via Chrome (yes, I'm bad, I need to disable/hide it and use Firefox Mobile. Sorry!), passing thru an on-device VPN - same effect.

So... What? How? Why? Anyone else seeing the same effect? Is it some kind of SEO blackhat/darkweb at play?

It would be beneficial to not use youtube links for things like QR codes. Since the content of youtube videos can't be changed once they're posted, you risk linking to old information.

https://cew.georgetown.edu/about-cew/ looks like something you'll put on a poster. But you may also want to update the video. So you can use a redirect you control, not a youtube link.

That's my explanation for why these redirects exist. But why the intext's contain "Go to channel Hook Global.", I have no idea. Maybe SEO thing, or even prompt injection?

Edit:

I don't think this is anything to do with Hook Global. I think that google has indexed the suggestions in youtube. For youtube, the intext is normally just the description of the video. But with a redirect, it seems to use the suggestions.

"Go to channel BBC News" -site:youtube.com

Also has some(not as many) of these links. I don't think BBC are doing some dodgy SEO.

Yeah that’s pretty weird. I thought that maybe it was websites getting hacked and then redirecting to malicious stuff, but then I did your recommended search and it all seems very benign, and the videos seem to match the page title and urls. So I thought maybe it was some service that people use to redirect to youtube but have their own link instead of a youtu.be link, but a search for "hook global" "youtube" "redirect" doesn’t appear to reveal what this is, it just shows more examples of the weirdness. Including pages that are apparently just from youtube. Maybe if you turn off redirection in your browser and then take a look at the source for the html page that redirects you, it’ll give a clue. I can’t right now (on mobile) but I can probably try later.

I don't think there is any content. When you try and view the page, it seems to send:

301 Moved Permanently Location: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nj6caVbtM_g&t=2s

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