Google has recently released a new tool to help us avoid clicking onto dangerous websites in a Google search.

The new Safe Browsing feature highlights websites that may feature malicious content either in their coding or available downloads. It uses information obtained by an automated investigation system that looks for potential problems across the web.

The tool is similar to the recently released SearchScan by Yahoo! which was in association with McAfee’s Site Advisor.

To use the tool, all you need to do is add the suspicious website’s URL to the following:

http://www.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=

Google will then return four sets of security details about that page. Which include:

(1) The current listing status of a site and also information on how often a site was listed in the past.

(2) The last time Google analyzed the page, when it was last malicious, what kind of malware Google encountered and so fourth.

(3) Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

(4) Has the site hosted malicious software in the past?

So if you come across any websites which you think look a little suspicious then just to be on the safe side it might pay to give Safe Browsing a go. Might also be worth checking your own website, to see if it has been listed as malicious at any point.