May 12 2008
Yahoo’s SearchScan: Does it affect SEO?
Yahoo in partnership with McAfee recently delivered SearchScan (beta release), a brand new feature in Yahoo! Search aimed at protecting users from spam, spyware, and viruses. The technology hopes to resolve privacy and security issues and make the lives of Yahoo users much easier by eliminating the need for constant downloads and updating of virus scanners.
SearchScan uses SiteAdvisor technology (by McAfee) to alert web users whenever “risky” sites appear in the Yahoo! Search results. It scans for 3 kinds of risks:
1. Browser exploits. SearchScan detects websites that install malware in the user’s computer upon visit. They are automatically removed from the search results.
2. Dangerous downloads. Websites that offer software downloads (like screensavers, games, etc.) that potentially contain viruses, adware, or spyware are tagged as risky. Yahoo’s SearchScan technology puts a prominent warning beside the website’s name in the search results. Users can still access the site if they want to.
3. Unsolicited email. Yahoo! Can now alert users when a site sends unsolicited emails and/or share email addresses and details with third parties.
Last May 5, 2008, SearchScan was automatically applied to users in the U.S., UK, Canada, Italy, France, Germany, New Zealand, Spain, and Australia. There is a choice not to use it, though — users can turn the feature off by tweaking their preferences. They may also filter out all websites with warnings from the Yahoo! Search results.
Reactions from the SEO public
Yahoo’s aim in implementing this “safer search” technology is to help users make informed decisions regarding the sites they visit. Yahoo displays prominent warnings next to the sites with potentially harmful risks, telling users if a site is safe to share information with or download files from. All sites identified by McAfee as “browser exploit” will not anymore appear in the Yahoo! Search results.
To some webmasters, this new development is a form of censorship. According to some reactions in the Yahoo! Search Blog, Yahoo seems to stand in judgment as it gives users choices by default when it should be objectively presenting relevant results. Some webmasters also fear false positives in McAfee.
Censorship or not, this means a broader scope of responsibility for SEO practitioners — from advising client-websites against usage of downloads and unsolicited emails to constant monitoring (making sure that none of our clients get flagged or banned by SearchScan). Here’s our opinion: If it helps clean up the web and make legitimate sites more prominent, then we’re all for it. SearchScan is still in the beta stages, anyway, and we’ll see more development in the coming months. Until then, we’ll keep doing what we’re good at – honest to goodness white-hat SEO.
