The Play N Start is a browser Extension and a Potentially Unwanted Program (or a PUP), distributed by an entity that calls itself simply “playNsearch.” The extension also can go by the name Play N Start Plus and has its own website and a Google Chrome store page that detail what it does. According to the Chrome store text, the Play N Start delivers a “quick entertainment click-and-visit experience,” whatever that could possibly mean. After installing the Play N Start for the first time and opening a new tab, the computer user is redirected to the following URL:

hxxp://api.getplaynsearch2[.]com/wim/api/verticals/content.php?vert=movies&id=ccobcdnclejmeiiomfcpfjlmmdflleec&name=Play%20N%20Start&rdr=1

This is followed by a redirect to hxxps://www.livesports[.]today/liveupdates2?source=unsupport_2nd and a string of messages and boxes that urge the computer user to allow notifications from livesports[.]today. Beyond that point, opening a new browser tab with the extension installed shows a custom search box with popular website shortcut icons below. Using the unlabeled search box brings up a Yahoo Search result page for the query entered. It’s not really clear where the “quick entertainment click-and-visit experience” is located in this bland and simplistic new tab layout.
The Terms and Conditions page of the Play N Start states that the information collected by playNsearch from computer users may be disclosed to “current and future affiliates,” among others, as well as to “vendors, service providers.”
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