Is; "?guccounter=1" a virus when I open Yahoo Mail?

"?guccounter=1"

Is this a virus or spyware? 

Actually, it is due to you, being "BAD" on your Yahoo account.  I garnered it on my account when a troll who had around thirty accounts used them to thumb every one of his comments/posts up and everyone else's down, so I began making accounts and doing the same to him. :)  In any case, he had the audacity to report ME and then left me a comment that his kid worked at Yahoo and that I'd begin seeing a counter when I logged on, so that yahoo could see how many accounts I have (had).  LOL.  Well, to begin, I doubt Yahoo would need to use a "counter" to do that, but I do believe it is Yahoo who incorporates it on some accounts, and not a virus.  That said, unless you're doing something bad, nothing comes of it.  (Thumbing people up or down thirty+ times is apparently not frowned upon by Yahoo).

I tried to figure this out when someone asked this same basic question a few months back, but gave up when I couldn't find a sensible explanation online.

This set of paranoid, nonsensical replies has made it imperative that someone provide a realistic response though, so I took another pass at figuring this out.

After an initial search where I found someone took a stab at a sensible generic response in Yahoo Answers as follows:

What does guccounter=1 mean  Yahoo Answers

At this point I noticed something in several of the other Bing research results and changed my next search to simply the following:

https://www.bing.com/search?q=yahoo.com%20%22%3Fguccounter%3D1%22&qs=n&form=QBRE&sp=-1

If you ignore the formatting garbage between fields and near the and, you'll see I simply searched for Yahoo.com and "?guccounter=1", which gave me a list of many of the top level Yahoo pages like My Yahoo, Help for Yahoo Account, Yahoo Answers, Yahoo Maps and others, each containing the "?guccounter=1" portion appended to the end of the URL.

So quite clearly, this is simply some sort of command that probably increments a counter related to that specific page in order to record how often that particular link is used.

Computer code seems to have some sort of mystical property in the modern world, probably due to the fact that so few actually know what the specific purpose for most of it truly is, so many people start to create a mythology in order to try and explain it.  In many cases as with religion the result is a nonsensical statement of "fact" that many begin to accept as "gospel", when in truth it's simply a confused group of people creating a set of beliefs that are accepted due to "groupthink".

"What Is Groupthink?

Groupthink occurs when a group with a particular agenda makes irrational or problematic decisions because its members value harmony and coherence over accurate analysis and critical evaluation. Individual members of the group are strongly discouraged from any disagreement with the consensus and set aside their own thoughts and feelings to unquestioningly follow the word of the leader and other group members."

Computing today is full of groupthink and thus mythology as well, so much so that it's hard to find any real facts within the mess on many supposedly technical forums any longer.

I learned computing from simple books written by people like Adam Osborne and others from the early days of the microprocessor and microcomputer.  Today most people learn from their friend, neighbor or the kid down the street, so is it any wonder that a mythology has developed as a result?

Code is written by people who often try to write it in ways that make it obvious and easy to understand and remember.  So try to read it that way and you'll often find relatively obvious reasons for the naming of items within the code.  Unless, of course, the writer is a malicious actor who's trying to obfuscate what's being written to hide its true purpose.

Rob

If that is part of what you see in the address bar, it's a redirect virus.

How to remove Any Browser Redirect virus (Removal Guide)

http://malwaretips.com/blogs/remove-browser-redirect-virus/

Agree, Kim, but wanted to add that if you simply remove the "?guccounter=1" it stops the tracking.  Also, if you change the "1" to a "2" it is supposed to help in not being redirected to ads like can sometimes (seldom, but sometimes) happen.  Lastly, if you have the guccounter, check your login bar too, because you'll most likely see a question mark (?) followed by text that includes the crumb parameter ("crumb" ) which can also be used for tracking and some say can help in deciphering your password if you type it in instead of having it saved.  (Not sure how true the part about your PW is, but it was told to me by a tech GURU).  When you see the crumb, just delete the numbers which follow it.  (Example: login.yahoo.../account/challenge/password...&acrumb=UgyBCTTZ to login.yahoo.../account/challenge/password...&acrumb) & Enter.

I have managed to get rid of it.My XP computer runs like new again.

   Thanks to all.