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One in 25 Search Results Risky

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the i-only-needed-one-anyway dept.

Ant writes "According to Ars Technica, security researcher Ben Edelman revisited his May 2006 report on the relative risk of search engine results. In the original report, Edelman found that 5 percent of the results provided by search engines were marked as either "red" or "yellow" by SiteAdvisor, indicating that they presented some risk to the user. Now, Edelman says that his new study has shown that only 4.4 percent of such sites are risky, representing a drop of 12 percent since May... ... The study found that not only can regular links found by search engines be dangerous, the sponsored links that appear in prominent positions in the results pages can also be harmful. In fact, in the May study, sponsored links were more than twice as likely to be linked to malware than non-sponsored links (8.5 vs. 3.1 percent)."

4 of 69 comments (clear)

  1. In related news... by porkThreeWays · · Score: 4, Funny

    1 in 25 search queries is for bukkake. It's no wonder =P

    --
    If an officer ever threatens to taze you, say you have a pacemaker.
  2. Seen that here too. by goldspider · · Score: 5, Funny

    Back when the Goatse and Tubgirl landmines were all the rage. And it was FAR more than 1/25!! I'm still using eyebleach!

    --
    "Ask not what your country can do for you." --John F. Kennedy
    1. Re:Seen that here too. by Pinkfud · · Score: 2, Funny

      Heh, I set my share of those landmines myself. Those were the days! It was also quite funny (for the evil-doer at least) to make a pair of popups that called each other. Pop-pop-pop-pop....

      --
      The world is my oyster. That's why it's always in a stew.
  3. Uh oh by Sir_Lewk · · Score: 2, Funny

    I would RTFA, but it might be risky...

    --
    "linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)