What's stopping someone hacking Google?

[tekno]

I've noticed a lot of people will use Google all the time rather than the address bar on their computer. Instead of sending phishing emails and the like, what's stopping someone hacking Google so that clicking on Santander, for example, actually sends you to a fake website where they then steal your log-in info?

[MonkeySee....]

I suspect Google have a few bits of security in place.

[Renzatic]

Nothing's stopping anyone from doing that, in fact it's done fairly frequently. I remember when MS Security Essentials first came out, if you did a Google search for it, you'd see a few phishing links posted right on the front page. Generally any search for a popular website will net you at least a couple. Google tends to be pretty good about cleaning them up after a bit, but some do still get through.

These people aren't actually "hacking" Google, rather they're abusing the system that's in place to get their links jumped up near the top of the first page.

[roadbloc]

Originally Posted by tekno

I've noticed a lot of people will use Google all the time rather than the address bar on their computer. Instead of sending phishing emails and the like, what's stopping someone hacking Google so that clicking on Santander, for example, actually sends you to a fake website where they then steal your log-in info?

What you've just described there isn't hacking. Also, I think they'll have people and lines of code checking search results of popular searches to ensure it doesn't happen.

[R94N]

You don't think Google has thought of this already and has put things in place to stop or reduce the effects of this?