I've encountered a browser hijack issue

Question

Note: I feel compelled to warn everyone that unless you're comfortable fixing a potential malware infection you should be careful in recreating my problem. I didn't plan to make the following URLs into actual links, but apparently the board does it automatically.
I know OS X is apparently malware free, but I'd rather err on the side of caution.
I was doing political research and Googled for "Queens County Democrats." This is the results URL:
https://www.google.com/search?q=queens+county+democrats&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&r ls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a
This is the full Google-redirect link to the first result.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CF8QFjAA&url =http%3A%2F%2Fqueenscountydems.com%2F&ei=xFTGT6HSNuP40gGu_-2RCw&usg=AFQjCNHsAhNb A95dS1oRlmLcht9ipYaEmw
The first time I clicked the resulting link I landed on a clickfarm. The second and subsequent times I was redirected to monkeyball.osa.pl, a known browser hijack for PCs.
But if you directly use the URL for the site, queenscountydems.com, it works fine.
I've reproduced this same issue on the MacBook of an employee here — I'm at a coffee shop run by friends, and they just got a new router. However, said employee tried it again at home and got the same result, which they think means it's the Democrats' site or Google. I didn't mention that it could also mean their computer could have contracted malware.
So is it the political party's site? Google's results? The router here? Or have I discovered and been infected by a Mac browser hijack?
Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

I see the same thing here, and I'm already using the OpenDNS servers.  That won't fix it.  The problem is not related to DNS, which would cause any attempt to go to the site directly to also fail.  The problem is SEO poisoning, a technique by which a hacker can get malicious links or scripts into Google's search results.  This issue is completely on Google's end, and in no way related to the computer.  If you were to try this on ANY device, you should see the same thing (as peter_watt has indicated).
SEO poisoning is a serious threat these days.  It's the primary method that the MacDefender trojans used to display fake anti-virus sites to unsuspecting users a year ago.