Google stops users from visiting bad lands

Stan Beer
Monday, 07 August 2006 18:40

Your IT - Home IT

Google may be totally agnostic when it comes to search results. However, if one of those links happens to lead to a site containing malware the search leader will do its best to warn you from now on.

The Stop Badware coalition of Google, Sun and Lenovo was set up in January this year, in conjunction with Harvard and Oxford University, to try to prevent web surfers from falling into the trap of visiting dodgy websites that engage in practices such as depositing spyware and worse on the machines of visitors.

According to recent studies, as many as one in 20 sites contain malware which put visitors at risk.

In keeping with its image of user choice, Google will not prevent users from visiting questionable sites. However, it will present surfers with an alert that the site has been identified as questionable and give them a choice of continuing on or returning to the search page.

The Stop Badware Coalition is gradually building a database of suspect sites and eventually plans to issue detailed reports to users intending to visit the sites rather than the generic alert page.