Yahoo and Microsoft have finalized their agreement that will have Microsoft provide the search results and advertising for Yahoo Search. The definitive agreement was originally scheduled to be completed in late October and was delayed while details were worked out. The pact will still need to receive regulatory approval before it can begin which the companies said that they hope will occur in early 2010.
Google to Add Notification of Outdated Applications to Webmaster Toolsations
Google will soon begin sending messages via the Webmaster Tools alerting webmaster that “content management systems (CMSs), forum/bulletin-board applications, stat-trackers”, and other web applications on their websites are out of date. This is an expansion of the alerts that Google began sending in October of 2008 to alert webmaster that they were running versions of applications that were known to contain security vulnerabilities. The notification will be limited to applications that Google is able to determine the version that is on the website by parsing the source code of the website’s pages. While some applications, most notably WordPress, include this information there are many other high profile applications including Joomla and Drupal do not. In their post announcing the feature, Google proposed that developers begin including a generator meta tag that includes the version number of the application in the web pages generated by the application.
Google Starts Incorporating Breadcrumb Links into Search Results
Google has announced that they have begun to incorporate website’s breadcrumb links into some search results. Breadcrumbs links are used to aid users in navigating the hierarchy of a website. For a small number of websites, Google will trim the URL shown under a search results snippet to just the domain name and then display breadcrumb links. Depending on how many how many and how long the breadcrumbs are they may exclude some of them. Google said that the intent of the feature was to provide “useful information about the page” and to allow users to “easily access information on broader topics”. They also said that they hope to expand the feature use in the future.
Google Adds Malware Warnings to Mobile Search Results
Earlier this week Google began labeling results that are suspected of containing malware in the mobile version of Google search. Since August of 2006 Google has been labeling suspected websites and blocking access to them in their standard search results. The only change made for the mobile version is that label placed under the result states “This site may harm your device.”. The message in the standard search uses the word computer instead of device.
Gumblar Malware Becomes Infectious Again With New Hosts
Last week the Gumblar malware was neutralized when the files containing its malware infection code were replaced with code that attempted to neutralize iframes. Today, those files have been modified to redirect users to files on other websites that contain the malware code. Like the original websites that hosted the malware code, these new hosts are websites that have been compromised by the malware. This is different than most attacks where the malware code is stored on a website controlled by the individuals behind the malware.
Yahoo and Microsoft Delay Finalizing Search Pact
Yahoo and Microsoft have delayed finalization of their agreement that would have Microsoft provide the search results and advertising for Yahoo Search. When the deal was announced in July, the two companies agreed to reach definitive agreement by October 27, 2009. Microsoft said there are some “issues that need some additional clarity and definitive details” before the agreement can be finalized and that the two companies have agreed extend the deadline to finalize deal. The pact will still need to receive regulatory approval before it can begin.
640,000 Websites Estimated to be Infected with Malware in Q3
Dasient, which monitors website for malware, reported that an estimated 640.000 websites and 5.8 million web pages were infected with malware in the third quarter of 2009. A significant portion of those infected websites, 39.6%, were reinfected during quarter. Websites can become reinfected if the vulnerability that allowed the website to be hacked into is not secured or another vulnerability is discovered. Most infection code consisted of JavaScript (54.8%) or an iframe (37.1%), with other code, such as .htaccess redirects, accounting for 8.1%.
Gumblar Malware Code Replaced With Iframe Neutralizer
The Gumblar malware, which returned in the past several weeks, appears to be neutralized for the moment. In its return, Gumblar was using compromised websites to host its malware code instead of a website owned by the person(s) behind the hack. Other websites that have been compromised by Gumblar, then have code inserted into them that causes a file, with the malware code, to be loaded from one the websites that host the malware.
The code on those websites hosting the malware has now been changed from the malware infection code to Javascript that neutralizes iframes and a message that reads “iframes are EVIL! Hate Zeus!”. If the iframe neutralizing code is loaded on a website that contains other malware scripts, which occurs in some cases, it could possibly disable those scripts.
Gumblar inserted backdoor scripts as part of its hack, which someone other than the original hacker could have used to change the code stored on the host websites. It is also possible that the originally hacker made the change for some unknown reason.
Google Announces That It Will Add Twitter Posts to Search Results
Just a few hours after Microsoft announced that it would be adding Twitter tweets to its search results, Google has announced that they will be doing the same. Unlike Microsoft, which released a beta version of their Twitter search along with their announcement, Google will introduce a product that “showcases how tweets can make search better” in the coming months. The move by both search engines is part of their strategies to integrate more real-time information into their search results.
Bing Adding Twitter and Facebook Posts to Search Results
Microsoft announced today that they would be integrating Twitter tweets and Facebook status updates into Bing’s search results. Tweets can be searched from the beta of Bing Twitter search at http://www.bing.com/twitter. Microsoft made no mention of whether or when tweets will be integrated in the standard search results. In July, Bing added tweets from a limited group of high profile individuals to some search queries related to those individuals. Facebook status updates are to be integrated into search results at an unspecified later date. There have rumors that Google has been in discussions with Twitter and Fackbook integrating postings from their services into Google’s search.