Study: Search Engine Results Getting Safer

By NewsFactor Network | December 14, 2006

A study from security vendor McAfee found that search query results returned by Google, AOL, and Ask.com are less likely to lead viewers to dangerous Web sites than they were six months ago. The study also found that Yahoo and MSN are not following that trend toward safer search results.

McAfee’s study crunched the new numbers over a six-month period as a follow-up to its May 2006 survey. That survey found that nearly 5 percent of all search results served up by Google, Yahoo, MSN, AOL, and Ask.com led Web surfers to malicious sites designed to infect computers with spyware, viruses, pop-up ads, junk e-mail, or other malware.

For the purpose of the study, McAfee’s SiteAdvisor organized a list of 2,500 keywords to evaluate the first five pages of search results for each keyword on each of the five search engines.

Modest Improvements

While Yahoo and MSN are showing an increased number of bad links, things are looking up for Google, AOL, and Ask.com, which had a combined 12 percent improvement, according to McAfee.

Chris Dixon, SiteAdvisor’s director of strategy, said the modest improvements in results are encouraging, but acknowledged that search engines are still dangerous. “When almost one of 12 sponsored links still clicks through to a risky site, there remains significant room for continued improvement,” said Dixon.

Overall, the survey found, some 4.4 percent of search results led users to risky sites, down from 5 percent in May. McAfee rated AOL the safest of the five search engines, with only 3.6 percent of all its results considered risky. Yahoo and MSN are considered the worst, with 5.1 percent of their query results rated risky.

Ask.com received the most improved award. Although MSN was considered the safest search site in the previous survey, it dropped to fourth position this time around. However, McAfee suggested…

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