Apr 16, 2012 at 1:30pm ET by Barry Schwartz

Google's head of the webspam team, Matt Cutts, announced on Twitter that they have sent out new message notifications to 20,000 web sites that are hacked. Specifically, Google sent these messages to sites doing "weird redirects." I've personally seen a spike in the number of sites redirecting from their web site to a non-authorized site recently. The webmaster is typically unaware of this redirect because the redirects only occur when someone clicks from Google's search results to the web site. Typically the site owner doesn't go to Google to find his web site; the site owner goes direct [...]

Firefox To Use Google Secure Search By Default; Expect More “Not Provided” Keywords To Follow

Mar 21, 2012 at 11:47pm ET by Danny Sullivan

The popular Firefox browser is on track to use a secure method of searching Google by default, a change that will help prevent potential "eavesdropping" of what people are searching for. It will also further reduce the ability for publishers to know how people find their sites in Google -- except for Google advertisers. A loophole in Google Secure Search continues to provide them with this data. “We are currently testing the change to use SSL for built-in Google searches in our Firefox nightly channel. If no issues are uncovered, it will move through our Aurora and Beta release channels bef [...]

Microsoft Security Patch Marked Google.com As Malware

Feb 16, 2012 at 10:05am ET by Barry Schwartz

Some of those who use Microsoft security software received a security patch a couple days ago that lead to malware warnings for users trying to visit Google.com. Softpedia posted a picture of the warning. Microsoft quickly learned about the issue on their support forums and issued a patch yesterday to address the issue. Microsoft didn't explain it was a Google specific issue but said: On February 14, 2012, an incorrect detection for Exploit:JS/Blacole.BW was introduced. On February 14, 2012, Microsoft released an update that addresses the issue. Signature versions 1.119.1988.0 and high [...]

Google Launches Online Safety Campaign With Citizens Advice Bureau

Oct 17, 2011 at 9:11am ET by Barry Schwartz

The Telegraph reports in "Google teams up with Citizens Advice Bureau" that Google is running its first non-Google-specific campaign in the U.K. to promote awareness for online safety. The campaign is named "Good To Know" and leads to google.co.uk/goodtoknow, where users can learn more about online safety tips. Google teamed up with the Citizens Advice Bureau on this campaign, where the two organizations are using newspaper ads, ads on public transport and online ads to promote the initiative. One of the major pushes is to get people to use "two-factor authentication" to help protect the [...]

Related Topics: Google: Marketing | Google: Security

Timing Is Everything: How Google Staged A Benevolent “Smear” Campaign

Sep 16, 2011 at 2:34pm ET by Chris Sherman

Google operates one of the largest cloud-based computing systems in the world, and takes great pride in its reliability, investing significant amounts of both money and human resources to make sure that all of its services are always-on and accurate. Here's the story of how, to eliminate what many would consider an almost insignificant issue, Google conducted a "smear" campaign and created software that "lied" to its own servers—all to improve performance and eliminate potential errors that most of us wouldn't even notice. Inside Google's Time Warp As searchers, we want fresh resul [...]

Related Topics: Google: General | Google: Other | Google: Security

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