Google is to make changes to its algorithm to prevent spammers using black hat search engine optimisation to get malicious web pages at the top of search results pages, according to a source at the company.
The new algorithm will be implemented in due course and will result in web users not seeing links to infected websites "nearly as often", the unnamed source told WebProNews this week.
Google is targeting those who take advantage of currently popular key terms researched via Google Trends and Google News to direct web users to websites containing scareware.
These spammers manage to get their results placed highly in Google thanks to tactics such as dropping links into comments and posts on blogs and forums, according to WebProNews writer Jason Lee Miller.
"Google's response seems also an admission of how difficult it is to provide fresh, timely search results while simultaneously combating spammers," Mr Miller stated, noting that he himself saw the top five results on Google link to scareware pages when researching a new story.
Over 200 signals - including the PageRank algorithm - are harnessed by Google when ranking websites based on their relevance and importance in the context of the wider web.
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