What is Search Awesome? And how does it work?

Search Awesome is an updated version of programs Wajam and Social2Search. It claims to provide users with improved search results which include content shared by users’ friends on social networking sites. If you judge its appearance, Search Awesome looks like a typical search engine as it gives users the impression of legitimacy. However, it is actually an ad-supported program or adware as it generates tons of advertisements like pop-up boxes, banners, in-text links and more. So once you start using this program, you will see lots of sponsored contents like deals, coupons, discounts and even offers claiming to lower the price for the supposed service of Search Awesome. You will also see advertisements with these texts:

• Advert from SearchAwesome.net
• Powered by SearchAwesome.net
• Ad by SearchAwesome.net
• Ads by SearchAwesome.net
• Advertisement by SearchAwesome.net
• Brought to you by SearchAwesome.net
• Advert from SearchAwesome.net
• Powered by SearchAwesome.net
• Ad by SearchAwesome.net
• Ads by SearchAwesome.net
• Advertisement by SearchAwesome.net
• Brought to you by SearchAwesome.net

In addition, if you try to use its search engine, instead of finding accurate results, you will see a bunch of sponsored content in the results page. In fact, most of the contents it displays in the search results are all from its affiliated sites that you can barely find related information about your search query or keyword you entered.
What’s more is that Search Awesome also has the ability to monitor your activities over the web so it can collect information like your IP address, search queries, browsing history, clicked data, and many more. All the information collected are then used to produce more sponsored content as well as shared with its affiliated third-party sites. Clearly, there is no point in using this kind of questionable program especially if it brings nothing but potential threats to both your computer and your privacy.
How does Search Awesome travel the web?
Search Awesome travels the web using software bundles found on free sharing sites. Along with other unwanted programs, Search Awesome is added as one of the extra components in a software bundle. So if you’re not careful enough, you could end up installing Search Awesome even if you don’t mean to. To prevent this from happening in the future, you need to always select the Advanced or Custom setup during the installation of the software package.
Use the removal guide given below to remove Search Awesome from your computer along with its components.
Step 1: The first thing you have to do to get rid of Search Awesome from your computer is to close all the affected browsers manually. If you find it hard to do so, you can close them using the Task Manager just tap on Ctrl + Shift + Esc.
Step 2: Once you’ve pulled up the Task Manager, go to the Processes tab and look for the affected browser’s process and end it.
Step 3: Reset all your browsers to default to their default state.
Internet Explorer

1. Launch Internet Explorer.
2. Tap Alt + T and select Internet options.
3. Click the General tab and then overwrite the URL under the homepage section.
4. Click OK to save the changes.
5. Now switch to the Advanced tab and click the Reset button.
6. Then check the box for “Delete personal settings” and then click Reset again.

Google Chrome

1. Launch Google Chrome, press Alt + F, move to More tools, and click Extensions.
2. Look for Search Awesome or any other unwanted add-ons, click the Recycle Bin button, and choose Remove.
3. Restart Google Chrome, then tap Alt + F, and select Settings.
4. Navigate to the On Startup section at the bottom.
5. Click on Advanced.
6. After that, click the Reset button to reset Google Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

1. Open the browser and tap Ctrl + Shift + A to access the Add-ons Manager.
2. In the Extensions menu Remove the unwanted extension.
3. Restart the browser and tap keys Alt + T.
4. Select Options and then move to the General menu.
5. Overwrite the URL in the Home Page section.
6. Tap Alt + H to access Help.
7. Next, select “Troubleshooting information” and click “Refresh Firefox” at the top of the page.
8. Now click “Refresh Firefox” again to confirm the reset.

Step 4: Open Control Panel by pressing the Windows key + R, then type in appwiz.cpl and then click OK or press Enter.

Step 5: Look for Search Awesome among the list of installed programs and any other suspicious program could be affiliated to it and then Uninstall it.

Step 6: Hold down Windows + E keys simultaneously to open File Explorer.
Step 7: Navigate to the following directories and look for suspicious files related to Search Awesome and delete it/them.

• %USERPROFILE%\Downloads
• %USERPROFILE%\Desktop
• %TEMP%

Step 8: Close the File Explorer.
Step 9: Empty the Recycle Bin.
Removing Search Awesome won’t be enough so you have to follow the advanced removal guide prepared below.
Perform a full system scan using [product-code]. To do so, follow these steps:

1. Turn on your computer. If it’s already on, you have to reboot
2. After that, the BIOS screen will be displayed, but if Windows pops up instead, reboot your computer and try again. Once you’re on the BIOS screen, repeat pressing F8, by doing so the Advanced Option shows up.

3. To navigate the Advanced Option use the arrow keys and select Safe Mode with Networking then hit
4. Windows will now load the SafeMode with Networking.
5. Press and hold both R key and Windows key.

6. If done correctly, the Windows Run Box will show up.
7. Type in the URL address, [product-url] in the Run dialog box and then tap Enter or click OK.
8. After that, it will download the program. Wait for the download to finish and then open the launcher to install the program.
9. Once the installation process is completed, run [product-code] to perform a full system scan.

10. After the scan is completed click the “Fix, Clean & Optimize Now”button.