How to Get Rid of Sponsored Results on Wikipedia
Wikipedia does not allow sponsored results to appear on its pages. Any advertising inserted into Wikipedia articles is rapidly removed by Wikipedia editors after it has been added. If you are seeing sponsored result information appearing alongside your Wikipedia searches, this indicates that you are seeing advertisements from a browser virus or malware plugin.
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Instructions
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1
Search for the same Wikipedia term from the Wikipedia home page using an alternative browser. If you are seeing sponsored results using Internet Explorer, use Firefox. If you are already using Firefox, use a new browser such as Chrome or Safari. Compare the search results you see in a new browser to the results in the original browser; if they are substantially different, this indicates malware affecting your first browser.
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2
Perform the search again using a different computer and again compare the results you see against the results from the first step. Some malware can affect all Web browsers on a particular computer, so checking your Wikipedia search on a different computer can demonstrate how your original results differ from what you should see.
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3
Install Microsoft or third-party antivirus software on your computer and perform a scan for malware. If your results from steps 1 or 2 indicated that your browser displays substantially different results than Wikipedia delivers, the antivirus software should find and delete the malware affecting your results.
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4
Open your original Web browser and perform another Wikipedia search. If you continue to see sponsored results, go back to Step 3 and try an alternative antivirus program.
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Tips & Warnings
It is completely normal to see sponsored results when doing a Wikipedia search using a standard search engine. Many people use Internet search engines to reach Wikipedia because Wikipedia results usually appear in the first few entries. If this is how you are seeing sponsored results, go to the Wikipedia page first and perform your search there; that will prevent any sponsored results from appearing unless you have malware on your computer.
