Google Search Results Now May Display Malware Warnings

Feb 13, 2007 at 8:58am ET by Barry Schwartz

Google Operating Systems reports that Google has changed the way they handle warning searchers of sites that may contain malware on them.

It notes that a search on beautiful free screensaver currently brings up a result from elitesavers.com that has a message from Google reading: “This site may harm your computer.” That message links directly to a Google help document explaining the message in more detail.

Here is a screen capture if you do not see it:

Chris Sherman wrote Matt Cutts On Appealing Google Malware Warnings which discusses how Google handled potential malware sites in the past. Also, towards the bottom of Danny’s January 2007 Update On Google Indexing & Ranking Issues he writes about “Malware Reporting.”

NOTE: If you saw a malware warning on Jan. 31, 2009, this was due to an error that briefly impacted all web sites. See Google Gets Fearful, Flags Entire Internet As Malware Briefly, for more.

Barry Schwartz is Search Engine Land's News Editor and owns RustyBrick, a NY based web consulting firm. He also runs Search Engine Roundtable, a popular search blog on very advanced SEM topics. Barry's personal blog is named Cartoon Barry and he can be followed on Twitter here.

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