Spurious Search results

Yes, search results that are not only unauthentic, but those which install trojans and viruses in your system exploiting those back doors that Microsoft guys have intentionally or unintentionally left open. (One more reason to use Linux). Once these small harmless looking pgms are in, its your systems' Waterloo. One such virus in Bancos, which is aimed at stealing passwords of bank accounts. In these days of online transactions, that can burn quite a hole in your pocket, if it manages to get itself installed in your system. Scary, but the truth. Around 4-5 % of search results are links to risky sites which install spyware, adware, trojans or show popup ads which do the same. If you think it is a small percentage, you should check out how many of them appear at the top of the search results and many of them appear as sponsored links.
According to McAfee's site advisor study, 'The State of Search Engine Safety', Yahoo returns the most search results rated "Red" or "Yellow" whereas AOL has the least. For once, Yahoo has managed to top Google. The study compares this years results with the previous year and states that while Google, AOL and ASK have managed to increase the safety of their search results, that of Yahoo and MSN have declined. Lots of details are available in the study, worth a read, so that next time you think twice before clicking on that search result.
So what do we do about this ? Invariably, one is bound to click on a problem link. A good AntiVirus Software should prevent installation of any problematic programs. To ease matters, there are some tools like McAfee Site Advisor and Link Scanner from Exploit Prevention Labs that give you an idea about how safe the site that you are currently browsing or about to visit.

I checked out SiteAdvisor; the features are quite good, it is available as a Firefox and IE plugin and its free. Its safe browsing button sits at the bottom right hand corner of Firefox and signals the safety of yoursite. You can also view the site details by clicking the button.
Another feature of SiteAdvisor is that it displays icons near each link in the Search results indicating whether that site is safe or not.

Google

Yahoo



The search query is for "bearshare", the top most dangerous keyword ! Check the number of risky sponsored links in Yahoo.

I will try out Link Scanner as soon as I (and if I) get time. Watch this space for more info.


Further Reading

The State of Search Engine Safety

Booby-Traps Hide in Google Sponsored Links

Users exposed to millions of risky searches

Dont forget to check the site advisor safe browsing button's color when you visit these sites.