A forward slash sends Google haywire

A simple typing error brought Google's search engine to a grinding halt on Saturday, preventing millions of people from finding web pages on the Internet.

All search results on the world's favourite search engine were flagged as potentially harmful, with users being warned that the site "may harm your computer".

Users who clicked on their preferred search result were advised to pick another one. The search engine incorrectly labelled all other websites as potentially harmful and suggested netizens should not click directly on their search results.

"What happened? Very simply, human error," Google explained in its blog.

The company later announced that the fault had occurred because an internal list of harmful sites was updated. A single forward slash (/) was put on the list in place of a full web address, effectively blacklisting every website because all web addresses contain the character.

The ensuing chaos prompted panic among web surfers who feared the popular search engine had suffered some kind of major failure that could have had serious implications for internet commerce.

Google has assured investigation into the incident and put more "robust file checks" in place to prevent a repeat of the fiasco.