back to article Ad slingers beware! Google raises Red Screen of malware Dearth

Watch out dodgy ad slingers and news sites; Google is expanding its 'last line of defence' Chrome feature to brand all security-slacker ad networks as unsafe. The Chocolate Factory will, over coming weeks, expand its Safe Browsing feature such that it throws an ominous Red Screen™ in front of ad networks it says have poor …

  1. silent_count

    Google blocks malware

    This must be stopped!

    Google is using its browser 'monopoly' to harm the poor malware peddlers' business model.

    1. Nick Kew
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Google blocks malware

      It's worse than that. Firefox recently started blocking flash, too. Must be the evil borg pulling its strings.

      1. Elmer Phud

        Re: Google blocks malware

        Flash was back within a day --once Flash had been sorted.

        (again and again and again)

  2. Mark 85

    Ads in the Pot meet Kettle world.

    A conundrum... an ad placement specialist blocking supposed malware sites and thus if a site wants ads and to be seen, they need to use Google. So if the malware peddler's place their ads via Google, all would be well and no red screen?

    1. king of foo

      Re: Ads in the Pot meet Kettle world.

      Better the devil you know?

      I don't think this sounds like a Google Mafia situation... Nice website ya got dere... shame if someone blocked it...

      More like Ew! Malware peddler! Keep out of my browser! And take yer filthy flash with ya...

      Pretty sure I used to have a plugin that replaced all ads with cat gifs - similar principle, but only for dodgy ads. I'm in favour of this. Just need to trust that they don't abuse this...

      1. Mark 85

        Re: Ads in the Pot meet Kettle world.

        Just need to trust that they don't abuse this...

        There's a big part of the problem... trust. Can we trust Google?

        1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

          Re: Ads in the Pot meet Kettle world.

          Can we trust Google

          Probably not. But more than we can trust most governments. Absolutely more than we can trust almost any other company in the tech industry and probably more than we can trust any other fortune 2000 company.

          Google are awful, thieving, sociopathic kleptocrats, but of the options available to the hoi polloi they're still the fuckwits likely to do the least amount of damage.

    2. John Robson Silver badge

      Re: Ads in the Pot meet Kettle world.

      Pretty sure it's used when ads contain driveby downloads or other malicious payloads rather than being ads per se.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    google are improving the performance and stability of your browser

    by blocking content that attempts to use undocumented features.

    nothing to see here...

  4. davenewman

    How do they know it's malware?

    Content and site blocking companies often misclassify sites.

    The one used by Stagecoach for WiFi on their buses blocks meetup.com because they claim it is adware.

  5. MrWibble

    How long before ad-servers not run by Google are now considered Malware?

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'd like to see an option

    that would allow me to go to that site anyway, even after clicking on some more buttons.

    I was really pissed off when Firefox decided to forbid my access to my home router via https because of weak crypto.

    Can we still have choice please ?

    1. Franklin

      Re: I'd like to see an option

      Chrome's Red Screen pages have an Advanced -> Continue to this page anyway link at the bottom.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Lemme Guess

    Let me guess how this will be misused, like other Blockers are already blocking nasty free thought sites.....

  8. Christian Berger

    The distinction between "good" and "evil" ist subjective

    For example I'd expect my browser to protect me from sites like Facebook and Google as well as other tracking sites. I'd also expect all that a browser would remove all that cruft that modern "web designers" but into their sites.

    I mean if a browser would enforce a "single origin" policy for Javascript, the web would already be a much nicer place. Pages would load _much_ faster because there wouldn't be so many needless DNS lookups.

  9. agnesmary

    Malware

    These are great news! I've had several cases when I accidentally installed maware with other programs and then it's really hard to get rid of unwanted toolbars and scam homepages. After you change it, it appears over and over again. So, that's a great addition to Chrome. http://goo.gl/UF3TDC

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