Google placed the internet on a blacklist today after a mistake caused every site in the search engine's result pages to be marked as potentially harmful and dangerous.

The problem affected internet pages across the whole planet, and lasted for around 40 minutes before engineeers were able to fix it.

The glitch centred on Google's malware detector, which is designed to keep internet users from visiting sites Google believes may install malicious software when users browse them. Google blamed "human error" when an engineer tried to add one web address to the list of those deemed suspicious, and mistakenly added them all.

"We periodically receive updates to that list and received one such update to release on the site this morning. Unfortunately (and here's the human error), the URL of '/' was mistakenly checked in as a value to the file and '/' expands to all URLs. Fortunately, our on-call site reliability team found the problem quickly and reverted the file," Google said in its official blog.

The incident occurred at around 2.40pm.

Apart from lost advertising revenue – which one expert estimated at $2-3m (£1.4-2m) – the incident is embarrassing for the world's most popular search engine, known for its reliability.

Users across the globe were puzzled as all searches were met with the warning: "This site may harm your computer."

A spokesman for Google said: "A lot of people were woken up in California when the problem broke. Clearly Google was labelling every website as malware."

Google's paid search results appeared not to have been affected.

As with The Black Cab Sessions, The Fly's courtyard and the French site blogotheque.net, which likes to film bands in vans, persuading music acts to perform acoustically in unusual places is quite the internet trend at the moment. The idea here is to kidnap touring bands and take them on a minor excursion into the deserted parkland and housing estates of London town and get them to play three songs while they shudder in the barren wind. In the case of sensitive Swedes Loney, Dear, this resulted in a small audience of goofing teenagers, but apart from the occasional stray duck, most of these quaint indie types perform to no one at all. That's about to change with the posting of times and venues of forthcoming acts; hopefully applause won't ruin the whimsical appeal.

There's a strong theme of techie nostalgia in this week's Viral Video Chart. If you want to be educated, check out the History of the Internet video, which charts the web's evolution from 1957 to now. It provides simple, clear information with accompanying graphics but you might find it a bit dull unless you're really into that stuff – in which case you probably know it all anyway and might enjoy pulling it apart.

If you to prefer to be amused, I recommend this 1981 news report on the internet and how newspapers are investing in electronic news. I wonder, given the massive financial problems newspapers now face as a result of competition from the web, if they would still be doing this with the benefit of 20:20 hindsight?

But my favourite is this creepy 1984 ad from Apple, shown during the Superbowl. I found it genuinely horrifying – though I think at the time it might have put me off all computers, including Apple. A few commentators have pointed out that the man on the screen looks like Bill Gates. Do you agree?

Guardian Viral Video Chart compiled by viralvideochart.com. They find the videos, we do the words...

1. Oren Lavie - Her Morning Elegance
Lovely song and video. If only I looked this good in the mornings.

2. Cadbury 'Eyebrows'
This Cadbury ad is raising a few eyebrows.

3. The T-Mobile Dance
T-Mobile discovers flash-mobbing.

4. Offline Gmail (in Gmail Labs)
Amazing revelation that today's web apps only work when they're connected to the internet. Who knew?

5. Imagine Spot 1
President Obama might be pro-choice but that doesn't stop the Catholic church conscripting him into its anti-abortion campaign.

6. History of the Internet
No doubt this is an edifying video but I was more interested in how the electronica soundtrack evolved through the decades.

7. 1981 primitive Internet report on KRON
Imagine if you could read your morning newspaper on your personal computer? It's not as far-fetched as it sounds.

8. Slumdog Millionaire Theatrical Trailer (HD, HiDef)
The movie of the moment.

9. Charles Hamilton vs Serius Jones Battle at SOB's - Subconscious Threads - 1/28/09
Count the cameras in the audience – from phones to big ones with chunky flashes.

10. Animal Collective - My Girls
It's like watching a lava lamp.

11. Heineken: Walk-In Fridge
Still not funny.

12. Get It On by Durex Condoms ... R-Rated NSFCC
Classic balloon-dog sex.

13. Veggie Love
Peta brings on the sex appeal.

14. Time lapse of a baby playing with his toys
Gather around the "dining table" and watch this video – it's seriously cute.

15. Paris Hilton meets Lady Gaga at the Nokia 5800 Launch
It's blonde and blonder.

16. Lil Wayne - Prom Queen Live
That's some serious body art.

17. President Barack Obama 2009 Inauguration and Address
Relive the moment when Obama became the 44th president of the United States.

18. H.W. Bush Floors Bill Clinton with Joke
I'm not sure Bush Sr gets away with it either, but there's no way Clinton could.

19. We will not go down (Song for Gaza)
Moving song for Gaza.

20. Apple Macintosh 1984 Superbowl Commercial
Scary.

Source: Viral Video Chart. Compiled from data gathered at 4.56pm on 29 January 2009. The Weekly Viral Video Chart is currently based on a count of the embedded videos and links on approximately two million blogs.

Crowded House frontman Neil Finn has called them "the most hopeful sound on earth", sharpclawed celebrity blogger Perez Hilton is a huge fan and 2009 buzz band Passion Pit have recruited them to sing backing vocals on their upcoming album. Such is the growing online phenomenon that is the PS22 Chorus, a bunch of singing 10-year-olds from a n elementary school in Staten Island, New York. Led by their enthusiastic teacher Mr B, the 70-strong group (whose lineup changes each school year) sing harmonious versions of contemporary songs, which they upload to youtube.com/agreggofsociety. In recent months, they've included gorgeous takes on Coldplay's Viva La Vida and Regina Spektor's The Call. But, last week, the group hit a peak with a supremely touching version of Keane's Everybody's Changing, which should send shivers down the most cynical spine. An album deal can't be far away.

No doubt the people at Muzu.tv would have preferred the PS22 Chorus to upload videos to their site, which they're hoping to establish as the undisputed home of music-related video online, by offering artists and labels a share in ad revenue. The Irish company's venture was furthered last week, when it announced deals with EMI and Beggars Group that will enable it to offer thousands more videos. The new content will go alongside videos already available from labels including SonyBMG, plus Muzu's own unsigned sessions footage and music-related films from ITN's archive (including interviews from Tony Wilson's legendary So It Goes show). It's an impressive site, but Muzu's big problem is that you'll find almost all of its content – and a whole lot more besides – on YouTube. However, if the other major labels follow Warner's lead and start removing all of their copyrighted material from YouTube, Muzu could fly.

While the majors fret about how to make money, the so-called "netlabels" continue to flourish, largely because they exist to give away their music for free. You can keep track of the latest netlabel releases at phlow-magazine.com, which is based in Germany, but written in English. The site's team trawl the world's legally free music sites, posting updates of the best music they find. The quality is consistently high, as demonstrated by the regular themed compilations Phlow put together for download. They offer, for example, a cracking collection made up entirely of electro tunes from Cologne, while their Music 2 Fall Asleep 2 compilations provide hours of soothing electro and folk. Best of all, if you like the artists you hear, you'll almost certainly be able to download their albums for free.