Google.com is a 'partially dangerous website,' Here's Why
It's quite ironic how the world's largest search engine giant labels its own URL, Google.com as 'partially dangerous' as shown in transparency report generated on Google's 'Safe Browsing' section on Tuesday morning.
For some, the news is an odd-mix of laudable candor and embarrassing gaffe. The 'Safe Browsing' is Google's means of reviewing billions of URLs on a daily in search for unsafe websites that potentially contain harmful malwares.
"Some pages on google.com contain deceptive content right now," explains the automated report on the website's status as quoted by The Guardian.
The report further noted, "Attackers on this site might try to trick you to download software or steal your information (for example passwords, messages, or credit card information)."
While the warning sounds frantically insane, the report does have a logical explanation for the unsavory categorization of Google's own URL noting, "Users sometimes post bad content on websites that are normally safe. Safe Browsing will update the safety status once the webmaster has cleaned up the bad content," according to a Fortune Magazine report.
While the news is doing rounds in various online media circles, Google haven't issued any official statement on the issue. Nevertheless, some Google employees explain that "some people have used Google services to host or link to something malicious, so the tool is flagging the whole domain as a little risky," Washington Post reported.
Actually, it's not just Google.com that was scanned with some bad apples in it. Apparently, other known URLs like 'tumblr.com' and code sharing site 'github.com' are being tagged as such. While majority of content posted are fine, user-generated content may have been red-flagged by the Safe Browsing tool.
As of press time, Google has already stopped branding its own URL as 'partially dangerous'. The webmaster may have already sorted and cleaned all the bad apples in the basket.
