In the news: Search engine Safety

June 4 2007

Summary

McAfee has updated their Search Engine Safety Research (see my previous blog from Dec 2006) and though the safety of consumers using search engines has improved by about 1 percent, searching still represents considerable risk to consumers.

• More than 276 million searches per month lead to risky sites
• Sponsored results (those paid to be placed in search results by advertisers) are still two-and-a-half times more likely to return risky websites than non-sponsored results (this is better than last year as Google is beginning to clean up their sponsored results)
• AOL remains the safest search engine, followed by Google, Ask, then MSN. Yahoo remains the most likely to return risky results (nearly twice as often as AOL)
• Searching on technology phrases, music, or file sharing continues to return high percentages of risky sites "Digital music" (19.1 percent risky results) "Bearshare" (45.9 percent), "limewire" (37.1 percent), "kazaa" (34.9 percent) and "winmix" (32 percent).
• ‘Adult’ keyword search risks have increased by 17.5 percent since December 2006. Risky sites now equal nearly 10 percent of adult search results – in an even sharper increase, sponsored adult search results risks increased from 13 percent in Dec. 2006 to over 22 percent now containing risky results.

Things to think about

• Search engine companies continue deliberately place consumers at risk by accepting sponsored results from companies with disreputable and fraudulent practices. They do so because it continues to be in their financial interest to do so.
• The research suggests that people who conduct more than 10 searches a day are likely to visit at least one dangerous site a day.  This should convince you to ensure that your computer has the best security software possible. Including functionality that warns you about possible risks before you click on a site. I use McAfee’s Site Advisor. (Note: I am not paid by McAfee in any way)
• If you don’t like being exposed to risky sites YOU have the power to change that. The search engine business is a fiercely competitive 1.6 billion dollar business and YOU are the commodity being sold – it is access to your eyeballs that advertisers pay the search engines to get.  To increase your safety, switch search engines or contact your existing search engine provider and complain.

McAfee Inc. Updates Pioneering Search Engine Safety Study

June 4 2007

More than 276 million searches per month lead to risky sites

One year after releasing its inaugural study of the safety of search engines, McAfee Inc. today published an update to "The State of Search Engine Safety." Today's update shows that while the overall safety risk to search engine users declined by about 1 percentage point, sponsored results  those paid for by advertisers  remain significantly more risky than non-sponsored results. Overall, McAfee estimates United States consumers make approximately 276 million monthly searches that lead to Web sites that could compromise online safety.

McAfee studied the five major United States search engines -- Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask  which account for 93 percent of all search engine use. To conduct the study, McAfee analyzed the first 50 search results returned by each search engine for 2,300 popular keywords. The keywords were selected from lists like Google Zeitgeist and Yahoo! Buzz, among other industry sources. Each result was compared to McAfee SiteAdvisor's Web safety database of 8.2 million site safety ratings. Red ratings are assigned to sites found to offer adware, spyware, viruses, exploits, spammy e-mail, excessive pop-ups or strong affiliations with other red sites. Yellow ratings are given to sites which merit some caution before use. The data for the study was analyzed in May 2007. The study was co-authored by Ben Edelman, noted spyware researcher and an advisor to McAfee SiteAdvisor.

Among the study's key findings:

• 4.0 percent of all search results link to risky Web sites
• AOL returns the safest results with 2.9 percent rated red or yellow, down from 5.3 percent in May 2006. Yahoo returned the most red or yellow results, 5.4 percent.
• Sponsored results contain 2.4 times as many risky sites as organic sites; in fact, 6.9 percent of all sponsored results are rated red or yellow. This represents an improvement from 8.5 percent last year, primarily due to Google's improvements in paid search safety. (Google's sponsored listings are featured on its own search engine, and also partially power ads on AOL and Ask.)
• Categories related to music and technology continue to be among the most dangerous search terms. "Digital music" returns the highest percentage of risky sites at 19.1 percent, followed by "tech toys" and popular keywords like "chat" and "wallpaper."
• File sharing programs were also prominent among top risky keywords. Dangerous file sharing searches include "Bearshare" (45.9 percent risky results), "limewire" (37.1 percent), "kazaa" (34.9 percent) and "winmix" (32 percent).
• Scam sites remain prevalent, representing 3.2 percent of all sponsored listings. Typical scams include download sites selling free software, ringtone sites with misleading billing practices, and work-at-home sites with deceptive terms.
• Among adult keyword search results, risky sites increased by 17.5 percent since December 2006, and risky sites now number 9.4 percent of overall adult search results. Driving this increase was a dramatic 72.2 percent increase in the percentage of risky adult sites within sponsored results.

"We're encouraged to see some improvement in search engine safety this year. But with four out of five Web site visits starting with a search engine query, consumers are still exposed to hundreds of millions of risky searches per month," said Tim Dowling, vice president, Consumer Growth Initiatives, McAfee SiteAdvisor. "In fact, an active search engine user, one that performs more than 10 searches per day, is likely to visit a dangerous site at least once a day."

Other detailed information contained in the report includes a comprehensive analysis of organic and sponsored results by search engine, an analysis of Google Zeitgeist keyword groups citing the safest and riskiest keyword categories, and an analysis of safety by individual keyword.

To see a full report on the McAfee search engine study, please visit: http://www.siteadvisor.com/studies/search_safety_may2007