Lend Google a Holiday Hand

With the holiday season among us, the danger of online shopping seems to be a popular subject of banter among folks in the technology sector. Predators looking to steal your sensitive information (credit card and social security numbers, home addresses, etc.) have been doing their due diligence in an effort to lead customers to Web sites containing malware. This unwanted software can perform a number of frightening tasks, such as recording your keystrokes and silently sending copies of your personal data to the attackers. One method that these crooks have employed to lure unsuspecting Web surfers to these dangerous sites is through Google's search engine.

Results peppered with sites containing malware have plagued Google for quite some time, especially during these peak holiday times. The search engine giant, in coordination with StopBadware.org, has been actively weeding out these sites from their indexes.

However, the relentless nature of these criminals has caused the company to reach out to the public for a helping hand. Google is asking that if you come across a site that is hosting malware, report it. Basically, if you see something, say something.

Firefox users can improve their search engine experience with the CustomizeGoogle extension, while those of you running IE should give GooglePreviewIE a try.