Dave Winer links today to a blogger who declares Google = evil because his site shows up with a “This site may harm your computer” warning in Google search results. “I’ve reposted his piece here in full, in case Google/Firefox is blocking his site,” Winer writes.
Neither Winer nor the blogger appears to have made any attempt to learn why this happens.
When Google detects known malware on a site, it puts up the warning to let people know it’s a dangerous site to visit. Google also posts information on the Google Webmaster console for that site, so the webmaster can find out what triggered the warning.
In this case, the blogger’s using WordPress on Bluehost. The most likely cause for the warning is that old versions of WordPress have security vulnerabilities that can be exploited to add malware. This blog was probably hit before WordPress was upgraded.
Google’s doing the right thing here. There was malware on this blogger’s site that could have done any number of evil things to his visitors (some of which are legally actionable). Instead of turning a blind eye, Google flagged the problem.
Winer and the blogger could have learned all of this by searching evil Google for the phrase “This site may harm your computer.”
