In its quest to fight malware and spammers, Google is now informing users when a website listed in its search engine has been compromised.
If Google detects that a website has been hacked and altered by a third party, the search engine will display a simple message under the search result in question: "This site may be compromised." Clicking on the linked text takes you to a page in Google's help center explaining that site has likely been hacked or otherwise compromised.
The search giant says that it's using "a variety of automated tools to detect common signs of a hacked site as quickly as possible." In addition to displaying a warning within search results, Google will also attempt to contact the site's webmaster via Webmaster Tools and its known contact e-mail addresses. Google notes that it already informs users when they're about to visit a website with malware through a separate warning page, a feature that has been around for several years.
While not specifically referenced, the notifications feature curiously comes just days after Gawker Media was hacked, compromising 1.5 million commenter accounts. The result was a series of attacks that affected Twitter and dozens of other websites.