Recently, Google Webmaster Central Blog republished a post from the Google Online Security Blog highlighting that Google is taking a step in protecting you from malware by warning you in listings (image on the right).

You may be familiar with this type of warning, Yahoo! has been using a beta product from McAfee (SearchScan) to highlight potentially harmful websites in search engine listings.

Sounds great, Google and Yahoo! are trying to help keep you computer clean by warning us before we click on a website listing and find out that our personal information has been comprised, right?

Google even goes into it further and let’s webmasters know why they decided to put the label on the listing and offers some advice:

Advance warning
I often hear webmasters asking Google for advance warning before a malware label is put on their website. When the label is applied, Google usually emails the website owners and then posts a warning in Google’s Webmaster Tools. But no warning is given ahead of time - before the label is applied - so a webmaster can’t quickly clean up the site before a warning is applied.

But, look at the situation from the user’s point of view. As a user, I’d be pretty annoyed if Google sent me to a site it knew was dangerous. Even a short delay would expose some users to that risk, and it doesn’t seem justified. I know it’s frustrating for a webmaster to see a malware label on their website. But, ultimately, protecting users against malware makes the Internet a safer place and everyone benefits, both webmasters and users.

Google’s Webmaster Tools has started a test to provide warnings to webmasters that their server software may be vulnerable. Responding to that warning and updating server software can prevent your website from being compromised with malware. The best way to avoid a malware label is to never have any malware on the site!

WTF
“As a user, I’d be pretty annoyed if Google sent me to a site it knew was dangerous.” - Really?

Why would anyone leave a listing for a website that may have malware at all? Google and Yahoo are both trying to take the “good citizen of the Internet” approach, but if they really were, they wouldn’t allow anyone to take that last step. Really, if you know there is a sign that says “Thin Ice” and someone is walking towards it, wouldn’t you stop someone from walking out on the ice? They have a further opportunity to put up a fence in this circumstance.

It isn’t the right of a website owner to be in the index of any search engine, so the idea that they can’t exclude someone is out the window. Lord knows that they exclude websites for other reasons, so why wouldn’t they here?

Am I really off base here? Please let me know… Here is a quick poll to voice your concern, or feel free to post in the comments.

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WTF - Malware in SERPs?