Tuesday, 5 June 2007

AOL, Google Searches Safe, Yahoo Searches risky: McAfee

In a report that can damage Yahoo’s reputation in the search world, a McAfee study has said that AOL shows most safe search results followed by Google while Yahoo searches are more risky...

In a report that can damage Yahoo’s reputation in the search world, a McAfee study has said that AOL shows most safe search results followed by Google while Yahoo searches are more risky.

The "Search Engine Safety" study, put together by McAfee's SiteAdvisor group, was compiled by testing the links offered by the Internet's five largest search engines.

The study, known as "The State of Search Engine Safety," conducted by McAfee’s Site Advisor group has some classic good news and bad news for Internet surfers. Using several automated techniques, the SiteAdvisor study determined that 4 per cent of the query results offered by the major search engines lead to potentially dangerous Web sites, and the total for sponsored links is nearly twice as high at 7 per cent.

The good news, however, is that the number of potentially dangerous search engine links has declined by roughly 20 per cent from May 2006, when the SiteAdvisor group released its initial survey.

The study concluded that AOL currently offers the safest search results, with Google second. Yahoo, with more than 5 per cent of its links rated "red" or "yellow," offered the highest number of potentially risky sites and also was the only search engine to show an increase in link risk since the SiteAdvisor group's last survey.