Do you know where your mouse has been?
Posted May 5th, 2008 at 9:15 pm by Vish Makhijani, Yahoo! Search
4 Comments / Filed in: Trends & News
Did you know that every year Internet scams and traps cost Americans over 7 billion dollars? Searching on the Web can present a minefield of spyware, malware and other malicious sites that can cause serious harm to your PC and cost you valuable time and money.
We are taking steps to make you feel safe when searching the Web — warning you about dangerous sites before you click on them. Today we’ve launched SearchScan (in beta), a new safety feature tucked into Yahoo! Search, courtesy of our friends, the dedicated security experts over at McAfee.
It provides alerts that appear within your search results, flagging “risky” sites with dangerous downloads that can include spyware and viruses. SearchScan will even warn you about sites that have dubious email practices to help you keep your email box free of spam.
No other search engine today offers you this level of warning before visiting sites. Period.
Yahoo! Search with the SearchScan feature is like your Internet security guard, warning you of danger so you can search with confidence… another reason to make Yahoo.com your starting point
Vish Makhijani
SVP & GM, Yahoo! Search
Tagged: news, search, security
(Average: 4.5 out of 5)
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4 Comments Add your own
badUI | May 6th, 2008 at 5:46 am
Agent K: There’s always an alien battle cruiser, or a Corellian death ray, or a plague intended to wipe out life on this miserable little planet. The only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!
Judy Friddle | May 6th, 2008 at 3:59 pm
McAfee - SiteScan - Bad Decision for Yahoo!
We are very upset that McAfee has put a note on our website listing when searched through Yahoo: “Warning: Unsolicited E-mails” This is totally misleading, as when you read McAfee’s report explaining this, they state that they submitted their email to us and it was posted on our site. Well, the only way that statement would be true is if they submitted the birthline registry form - this is the only place on our website that we post email addresses, with the submitter’s permission. The registry is provided for adult adoptees or birthparents to post listings in order to contact each other. And so I assume that McAfee made up a fake listing that they submitted, because every listing is read and posted by me, not automatically, and has to have the right information provided. What a fraud! McAffee has spammed OUR site! I really resent this and also that McAfee has worded their warning to suggest that WE send out unsolicited email if someone contacts us. Please ask them to let us know which is their listing so we can take it off so that it doesn’t mislead a sincere adoption searcher, what a mean, underhanded company they are!
Then with further investigation, we noticed that HUNDREDS of websites when searched on Yahoo have this warning - and they are all legitimate sites that have a guest list that can be signed or are a registry of some sort where people willingly post their emails - this kind of bad press from Yahoo sounds like perfect grounds for a class-action lawsuit! “Sally Kraus” with a multitude of variations of an email address seems to have posted on all these sites. Yahoo - lose McAfee or you will lose a lot more very quickly.
Please know that I am not trying to down Yahoo, but I see such potential damage to your company from this unfair, gestapo-like tactic to rate sites.
Sincerely,
Judy Friddle
Vish Makhijani | May 7th, 2008 at 1:12 pm
@Judy: Thanks for flagging this. McAfee identifies security risks that include, among other things, sites that accept user email addresses and then generate spammy emails or cause spammy emails to be received by the user from other websites. If you disagree with any ratings or believe you have fixed the security issues the McAfee cited, please contact McAfee or write in to us using the Yahoo! SearchScan Rating Form that appears when you click on “Site Owner Support” in the warning window.
Vish
Judy Friddle | May 8th, 2008 at 12:39 pm
Vish,
I appreciate your reply, and yes I have already contacted McAfee & sent an email via Yahoo!SearchScan Rating Form (no replies from either one) - but instead of just fighting over McAfee’s misleading warning on our site, I wish someone could do something about McAfee submitting false listings to hundreds of legitimate websites’ guestbooks or registries, and then pointing the finger at THEM as spammers.
It appears that McAfee is really the internet’s biggest security risk, as the spammer, phisher, spybotter, etc. that we all need protection from.
Judy
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