Searching the web through Yahoo! just became much safer thanks to a new feature called SearchScan. Every time you search the web using Yahoo you will see warning messages alongside the results alerting you to potentially dangerous websites. What a great feature! Now you have a heads up whenever a site you’re about to visit has the potential to harm your computer!

SearchScan was created through a Yahoo! partnership with the well-known antivirus provider McAfee, leveraging their SiteAdvisor technology! The three main protection features SearchScan offers are as follows:

• Browser Exploits — These are sites that can stealthily harm a user’s computer or install malware simply by visiting the site. Beginning today, any such sites or pages included in McAfee’s data will be removed from search results automatically.
• Dangerous Downloads — SearchScan will display warnings next to search results for sites that offer potentially dangerous software, such as viruses, spyware or adware. Users often may be unaware that these can be passed along with the screensavers, games and other software downloads.
• Unsolicited Email — SearchScan will alert users to scanned sites that send unsolicited emails or inappropriately share email addresses with third parties.

The best part about this feature is that any website known to take advantage of browser exploits will be removed from Yahoo! search results automatically. This means once a problem site is found and reported it will be removed from the Yahoo! index preventing it from infecting other Yahoo! visitors.

Another great idea, SearchScan is turned on automatically so everyone is protected right from the start, you don’t have to do anything. I love this and hope other search engines will jump on the bandwagon soon. A feature like SearchScan has the potential to inform and protect millions of users who don’t know how to recognize potentially harmful sites, WAY TO GO YAHOO!

Technorati Tags: Yahoo!, SearchScan, McAfee, SiteAdvisor

It’s Official, Yahoo has rejected Microsoft’s offer of a $44.6 billion buyout and Microsoft Responds. The NYTimes is reporting Yahoo’s stock has risen slightly in light of the rejection letter.

That means that investors appear confident that Yahoo is simply posturing to get a better deal from Microsoft (most likely) or someone else (if they can).

What does this mean for Google? Is Yahoo going to strike a deal with AOL? Keep up with the latest news on Yahoo and Microsoft in relation to this recent offer on the NYTimes Bits blog.

Technorati Tags: microsoft, yahoo, merger, aol

This time it’s actually true. Yesterday Microsoft made a $44.6 billion offer to acquire Yahoo! Google is by far the most dominant when it comes to online advertising. A deal like this, if accepted by Yahoo, could create a true competitor in the online advertising market. Here’s what Eric Sconfeld over at TechCruch came up with to show how a Microsoft – Yahoo merger would compared to Google.

The real question may be what will happen with each of the properties owned by Yahoo and Microsoft if the two companies combine. Microsoft has been putting a lot of effort behind their new “live” branded properties, including many still under development. Both companies have their own media players, search engines, email, photo sharing, etc. Duncan Riley from TechCrunch gives his take on what will happen to some of the major products in the event of a merger.

In my opinion this seems like it would create a company too large but on the other hand it could create great competition in the online world. Yahoo just recently announced 1,000 layoffs, could Microsoft be the company to get Yahoo properties back on track? So when it comes down to it I guess I don’t really have much of an opinion yet, I can see the goods and bads that could come out of this merger. We’ll just have to wait and see when and if the deal actually goes through, I hear News Corp (Rupert Murdoch’s media conglomerate) is now also scrambling for a bid.

Technorati Tags: Microsoft, Yahoo, merger