If you have an AOL email account, you probably encountered a Guce Advertising pop-up when you tried to access your inbox on Firefox, Safari, Chrome, or Internet Explorer. Because of such behavior, it is easy to think that Guce.advertising.com is somehow related to adware or browser hijacking. While this redirection could be considered an error, it is not malicious by itself, nor is it associated with malware. It is far more likely that you have a potentially unwanted program (PUP) installed on your computer that is making use of this advertising website.
Guce.advertising.com may be used by a PUP to promote sponsored advertising content. As a result of landing on Guce.advertising.com, you may be led to domains containing spam, advertisements, and other PUPs. Depending on the app that makes use of Guce.advertising.com, you may also be led to other websites that claim that your computer is infected with malware or you have an outdated program installed that requires an update. Guce.advertising.com redirections usually start after users find themselves on a rogue page that says they need to update their Flash Player.
Guce Advertising itself is part of a large advertising network called Oath, which is a Verizon Communications subsidiary that was created when AOL and Yahoo were merged in 2017. Please note, however, that Oath is not responsible for the Guce.advertising.com redirections as the website is employed by unrelated third parties. In other words, Oath could be responsible for the pop-up showing up on your screen, but they do not embed the content it displays. When a PUP uses Guce.advertising.com, you could also be exposed to a pay-per-click scheme as one click could end up redirecting you through lots of pages.
As we have mentioned in the beginning, it is also possible to experience redirections to Guce.advertising.com if you use AOL Email and you have Ublock or AdBlock enabled on your browser. Users who use all main browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer, may experience these redirections while trying to access their AOL email account. The bottom line is that AOL Mail users who use ad-blocking apps experience redirections to Gruce.advertising.com due to changes in AOL’s ToS and Privacy Policy. Users accept these changes if they want to use AOL Mail and, as a result, accepting changes enables Gruce.advertising.com redirections.
So what happens? Oath tries to redirect users to Guce Advertising as it is part of its business model. Take note here that Oath does not redirect anyone to dangerous content. It is far more likely that users encounter the message ‘‘This site can’t be reached / Guce.advertisingcom took too long to respond’‘ because users employ the aforementioned ad-blocking apps, and so an advertising site cannot load properly. Thus, the redirection looks like an error.
If you do not have an AOL email account, but you experience the Guce.advertising.com redirections, they could prove to be problematic because multiple redirects could potentially lead you to a URL containing dubious content. This worst-case scenario is highly unlikely, but the possibility exists because a PUP could be using this domain to promote third-party content. Users should be cautious to not click anywhere on the newly-opened pages that they are redirected to, as that may initiate an unwanted download.
How Do I Remove PUPs That Employ Guce.advertising.com?
To rid your computer of any potentially unwanted programs or adware that you might have downloaded, you should scan your computer using a reputable malware remediation program.
