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Google has started warning users of the dangers of a webpage they are about to visit.
A warning will appear if users click on a link to a site hosting spyware or other malicious programmes that could harm their computer.
The new initiative has sprouted from a larger program which catalogues the programmes that bombard people with unwanted advertisement pop-ups, spies on the user’s online habits, or tries to steal personal data.
Anyone who uses the search engine will be able to see the warnings if they click a link to a webpage identified as destructive by the Stop Badware coalition.
The initiative was set up in January 2006 by Google and PC makers Lenovo and Sun to weed out the dangerous software from the good and identify those websites that trick people into downloading and installing such bad programmes.
Google will first alert users to a dangerous site, but the warnings will become more detailed as Stop Badware researchers find out more about the malicious sites.
The warning will include suggestions to an alternative website, but Google say they will not be able to help the user if they choose to ignore them.
According to a research report release in May this year, four to six per cent of sites have potentially harmful content on them.
Furthermore, search terms such as ‘free screensaver’ return the highest number of dangerous sites at 64 per cent.
Google is one of many companies trying to help their users to avoid the pitfalls on the internet.
McAfee's SiteAdvisor, who partly sponsored the report, also warn their users of potentially harmful websites before they enter.
Another company, ScanSafe, also has a search engine which aims to protect users from entering dodgy sites, based on results found by Google and MSN.
"Most dodgy websites that have spyware or are infected with viruses come through search," Eldar Tuvey, chief executive of ScanSafe told BBC News Online.
"They are the ones that people do not know as well and find through searching."
izvor
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