Google offers 'badware' site alert

Stuart Corner
Monday, 07 August 2006 19:26

Your IT - Home IT

Google has introduced a warning system that will alert users before they link through from a Google search to any website identified as hosting badware - spyware, malware or deceptive adware.

Google is identifying such sites using the list compiled and maintained by the Stop Badware Coalition , an initiative lead by the Harvard Law School's Berkman Center for Internet & Society and Oxford University's Oxford Internet Institute that aims to become a central clearinghouse for research on badware and a focal point for developing collaborative, community-minded approaches to stopping it.

Clicking a link in a Google warning will initially take the user to the Stopbadware general warning page,  but the organisation intends to replace this with a page detailing the specific problems with the website the user is trying to reach.

To build its list of badware sites the Stop Badware Coalition relies in part on feedback from the general public.