iStart Search Bar

The iStart Search Bar is an intrusive browser extension that may promise to enhance the users' online experience by introducing them to a feature-rich search engine and many other improvements. However, the true goal of iStart Search Bar is to bring traffic to a search engine affiliated with it, therefore boosting the ad revenue it generates. While this is not threatening, it may end up causing problems for the user because they will be forced to use a 3rd-party search engine that they do not know, and they may also encounter more advertisements than usual.

It seems that the iStart Search Bar add-on promotes the sites Webssearches.com and Istart.webssearches.com – both host a search feature, accompanied by links to some of the Internet's most popular sites. Using the search feature on these sites may not always yield the most reliable results – users may see sponsored results and advertisements on top, so they are unlikely to find the most relevant results.

iStart Search Bar is classified as a Potentially Unwanted Program (PUP) and it should not be considered to be a threatening application. However, it should certainly be removed if you do not enjoy the changes it brings or if you did not install it on purpose. The best way to get rid of PUPs is to run a suitable PC security scanner.