Extending the reach of its existing SiteAdvisor Web site warning technology, online security specialist McAfee Inc. has joined forces with Internet giant Yahoo Inc. to bring cautionary notification to the search results of Yahoo users.
McAfee brings SiteAdvisor-powered security to Yahoo via SearchScan. Image: McAfee.
The new beta-integrated SearchScan feature will work by using McAfee’s well-established security expertise to point out potentially dangerous Web sites to Yahoo users before they inadvertently click on them.
That pre-emptive identification will arrive in the form of a red exclamation point and a warning posted next to site links that McAfee has previously identified as delivering malicious downloads (malware), adware, spyware, e-mail spam, and even possibly handing remote access of the user’s computer system to an online criminal.
“The new SearchScan feature from Yahoo! Search makes searching the Web even safer than ever before. No other search engine today offers this level of warning before visiting sites that can damage or infect a user’s PC and cost them valuable time and money,” said Vish Makhijani, senior vice president and general manager of Yahoo! Search. “Through this partnership with McAfee, we can offer users a safer search experience and drive more users to make Yahoo! Search their starting point on the Web.”
To further improve the search experience of Yahoo users, McAfee’s technology will automatically eliminate harmful sites from search result listings, while relying on the on-screen alert warnings to inspire enough caution in the user before they proceed.
“When a user gets a set of search results, there’s really no indication of who’s a good guy and who’s a bad guy,” said Tim Dowling, vice president of McAfee’s Web Security Group in an Associated Press report. “You’re really leaping off a platform of faith that you’re clicking on a site that’s safe and not one that’s bad. And the bad guys really try hard to look good.”
It’s likely that Yahoo’s security deal with McAfee is an attempt to prise search traffic away from market leader Google Inc. and also improve its own static financial performance now that Microsoft Corp. has abandoned its high-profile takeover bid for the Internet company.
According to comScore figures for March, Google presently holds around 60 percent of the US search market, while Yahoo Inc. sits in second with around 21 percent.
The partnership between McAfee and Yahoo has been described as “a multi-year, global agreement” that will introduce further joint elements such as Yahoo bringing its search feature to McAfee users in the next few months.
The added security of SearchScan is available for all Yahoo Search users based in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Spain.
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