Google Malware Warning: Big Help or Big Brother?
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It’s been in place since August of last year, but it only seems to be attracting attention now. Unless you actively surf for free music, you might not even have seen it yet. It’s Google’s new malware warning, and it’s a good thing – or is it?
I hadn’t heard of this myself until about mid-February, which just goes to show how tame my search habits are. I first saw it discussed on SEO Chat’s own forums, where one of the members mentioned a search term that would show sites with that warning. Here’s a screen shot (cropped to fit) so you can see what I mean:
As you can see, under the first result is a link with the words “This site may harm your computer.” Click on that link (not the regular one for the result) and you arrive at a Google Web Search Help Center page. It explains that the warning appears with results that Google has identified “as sites that may install malicious software on your computer.” It goes on to give examples of such software, warn that such software is often installed without a user’s knowledge or permission, and includes several links for the user who wants more information or is concerned that malware is already installed on his or her computer.
Google is all for being proactive. In addition to those two links, the search engine includes a link to follow if you want information about reporting a web site that may have violated its Webmaster Guidelines. Finally, there is a link for administrators who believe their site has been identified by mistake. I’ll go into more details about these in just a moment.
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