ISearch is not a "Firefox thing" at all, and it is software that you do not want living on your computer.
Despite all of ISearch's statements to the contrary (and their legal proceedings against those who disagree with their position), their software falls firmly under the categories of adware, spyware, and hijackers.
This is a partial excerpt from their End User Licence Agreement (which they do not even link to on their home page):
By clicking "yes" or downloading, installing or using the Software, you acknowledge that you have read and understand this Agreement and agree to be bound by its terms. If you do not agree to be bound by the terms of this Agreement, you may not download or use the Software, and shall close this window without downloading the Software or clicking yes to indicate your acceptance of this Agreement.
2. Functionality - Software delivers advertising and various information and promotional messages to your computer screen while you view Internet web pages. iSearch is able to provide you with Software free of charge as a result of your agreement to download and use Software, and accept the advertising and promotional messages it delivers.
By installing the Software, you understand and agree that the Software may, without any further prior notice to you, automatically perform the following: display advertisements of advertisers who pay a fee to iSearch and/or it's partners, in the form of pop-up ads, pop-under ads, interstitials ads and various other ad formats, display links to and advertisements of related websites based on the information you view and the websites you visit; store non-personally identifiable statistics of the websites you have visited; redirect certain URLs including your browser default 404-error page to or through the Software; provide advertisements, links or information in response to search terms you use at third-party websites; provide search functionality or capabilities; automatically update the Software and install added features or functionality or additional software, including search clients and toolbars, conveniently without your input or interaction; install desktop icons and installation files; install software from iSearch affiliates; and install Third Party Software.
In addition, you further understand and agree, by installing the Software, that iSearch and/or the Software may, without any further prior notice to you, remove, disable or render inoperative other adware programs resident on your computer, which, in turn, may disable or render inoperative, other software resident on your computer, including software bundled with such adware, or have other adverse impacts on your computer.
3. Privacy Policy - iSearch, during the delivery and your use of the Software, does not collect any personally identifiable information about you, such as your surname, address, telephone number or e-mail address, nor does iSearch require such information from you before downloading or installing the Software. However, to enable iSearch and/or it's partners to provide and operate its Software, iSearch and/or it's partners may collect certain types of non-personally identifiable information about individuals who install the Software. This information may include your Internet protocol (IP) address, your domain, your operating system, your browser version, type and language and your Internet Service Provider.
Advertisements may be displayed of advertisers who pay a fee to iSearch and/or it's partners and you may be provided with and/or redirected to content of other parties and/or links to third party websites or content or offered the opportunity to download software from third party software vendors. iSearch and it's partners are not responsible for the privacy practices of such advertisers, content providers, third party software vendors or websites. iSearch encourages you to read the privacy policies of such advertisers, content providers, third party software vendors and websites.
iSearch and/or it's partners may use invisible tracking or counting devices known as "web bugs" to register that a particular web page has been viewed and/or "cookies" or alphanumeric identifiers that iSearch and/or it's partners transfer to your computer's hard drive through your web browser to enable iSearch and/or it's partners systems to recognize your web browser.
iSearch and/or it's partners may also collect and may use certain other types of non-personally identifiable information, including: certain of the web pages that you view, the amount of time that you spend on certain websites, your responses to ads served by iSearch and/or it's partners, certain software installed to your computer and software characteristics and preferences, non-personally identifiable information on web pages and forms, software usage characteristics and preferences, and your ZIP code. iSearch and/or it's partners may associate this information with a randomly-generated anonymous identifier for your computer and may use this information to enable the functionality of the Software, to periodically update the Software, to deliver and display ads served by iSearch and/or it's partners of advertisers who pay a fee to iSearch and/or it's partners, provide you with or redirect you to content or websites of such advertisers or other parties and offer you the opportunity to download software from third party vendors.
iSearch and/or it's partners may share non-personally identifiable aggregate information about you with third parties, including advertisers. Additionally- ISearch has gotten so much criticism for their actions that in order to defend themselves (and protect their precious income) they've even payed Google to place the following (ridiculously inaccurate and totally misleading) "sponsored link" at the very top of any Google searches done solely on the keyword "ISearch": http://toolbar.isearch.com/uninstall/
Here's the full text of that link. I won't even comment on their assertion that you should contact the Better Business Bureau, as the utilities needed to remove their parasite are free...:
iDownload.com, Inc. DBA iSearch Internet provides applications which help to subsidize the free content and product offerings of many publishers. iSearch applications are not spy ware and do not collect any personally identifiable information about users. Additionally, iSearch applications do not hijack home pages, promote obscene material, alter/add items to user's favorites, modify security related settings, prevent security related applications from running, or alter cookies or url's to receive credit for affiliate driven sales.
If you wish to remove the iSearch applications from your computer, you may download our automated removal mechanism .
Please be aware that many so called "ad ware removers" and "spy ware removers" can cause damage to your computer and may alter your computer in such a way that our automated removal application will not function. At the present time, there is no third party software which is capable of removing iSearch applications. If you have purchased an application which claims to remove iSearch, we encourage you to contact your credit card company and request an immediate reversal with the reason of "Product Not As Described" and/or contact the Better Business Bureau.
If you read both of the above statements from ISearchcarefully, I think you'll find that there's more than a bit of contradiction betwdeen the two.
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OK- all of that said, please do the following:
Download HijackThis:
http://www.majorgeeks.com/download3155.html
Once downloaded, follow these instructions to install and run the program:
Create a folder outside of any Temp/Temporary folders for HJT and move it there now. A folder such such as C:\HijackThis or C:\Spyware Tools\HijackThis will do.
One of the normal steps in eliminating malicious programs is to entirely delete the contents of all Temp folders. Given that, if HijackThis (and other data that you care about) is living in those Temp folders, it will be erased along with everything else!
Temp/Temporary folders are just that- Temporary. They are not meant for permanent storage, as their contents are often delete in the course of troubleshooting, by running disk clean-up utilities, etc.
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Run HijackThis, but do not have HJT fix anything yet; only have it scan your system! Once the scan is complete, the "Scan" button will turn into an option to "Save log...". Save the log in the folder you created for HiajckThis, open the log in Windows Notepad, and cut-n-paste the entire contents of the log here. The log contents will tell us a lot about what "nasties" have crept into your system, and once we analyse the log we can tell you what to do from there.
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