Microsoft in an effort to be on par with Google and Yahoo has recently launched a powerful webmaster tool that will detect the embedded malware. Google already has its safe browsing diagnostic tool that warns users of harmful sites and Yahoo for its share has SearchScan. Microsoft did not have anything so far in these lines and to fill the gap, it has launched malware detection service.
If there is any malware embedded in your website or if you happen to link to websites that have malware then you can be causing a considerable amount of damage to your website visitors and they are not going to like it. Using the Microsoft’s tool, you can now find whether there are any malwares in your web pages. You will be able to download a report that can be accessed offline. This report will tell you clearly the pages that are affected by malware. This will also help you protect yourself from linking to websites that you are linking to if they have any malware. All your outbound links will be checked and you can identify problematic sites and end your relationship with those websites.
Often the malware that get embedded in our websites can remain latent and the harm they are causing may not be that evident. Microsoft’s latest tool seems to be more powerful in terms of identifying the malware. It picks up malware that are ignored or not identified by Google Safe Browsing and Yahoo’s SearchScan. Microsoft can pat itself for making their tool better than its competitors. This is of course a free service and thanks to the competition and it is because of this competition we are able to get better and more powerful tools.
Microsoft hopes that this free tool will help webmasters to audit their own sites and their security. Microsoft has been notorious for its exposure to websites with malware that are served by unethical search engine optimization. Microsoft has felt the need for such a tool not more in terms of fighting its competition but the need was felt because of the increasing number of malicious players who abuse Microsoft’s networks. Even recently, Google trends keywords appeared automatically on the Live Spaces of Microsoft and this in turn redirected fake codecs.
This new tool will therefore will make Microsoft’s networks safer than before. However, the security factor has to be ensured by individual webmasters and they will have to monitor their websites constantly. Website security is not a one-time endeavor, which they can test once and forget, they need to come back month after month, week after week if they want to enjoy good reputation online. Microsoft has plans to refine this tool further and enhancing its capabilities. This will indeed become a useful tool for webmasters who want to ensure that their websites do not become victims of malware.