What does the safebrowsing function tell us about our network?

[internetheaven]

Thankyou to the WW poster who pointed out this function:

[google.com...]

Here is the safebrowsing result for the network one of my problem domains is hosted on:

Safe Browsing Diagnostic page for AS***** (UK)

What happened when Google visited sites hosted on this network?

Of the 18352 site(s) we tested on this network over the past 90 days, 140 site(s), including, for example, *****.com/, *****.com/, *****.co.uk/, served content that resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent.

Over the past 90 days, we found 3 site(s) on this network, including, for example, *****.net/, *****.com/, *****.net/, that appeared to function as intermediaries for the infection of 17 other site(s) including, for example, *****.co.uk/, *****.com/, *****.com/.

This network has hosted sites that have distributed malicious software in the past 90 days. We found 7 site(s), including, for example, *****.org/, *****.gr/, *****.com/, that infected 8 other site(s), including, for example, *****.com/, *****.gr/, *****.com/.

Is it possible that who I'm hosted with could be affecting my rankings?

Mike

[dstiles]

Clicking on that link is interesting. Can we trust google? It claims there are over 8000 results for site:example.com but...

"Of the 28 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days..."

As far as I can determine there is actually only one page. :)

As to accuracy: I tried three of my domains and NONE of them had been visited by google in the past 90 days. If that means googlebot hasn't visited then they are lying. If it refers to their diagnostic bot then who knows? I haven't detected it.

[tedster]

I tried three of my domains and NONE of them had been visited by google in the past 90 days.

As I understand it, that is a report of special spidering to check for malware. It's not the same as regular googlebot visits.

[dstiles]

I did suspect that, tedster. Any idea what the UA/ IP of the bots is? Presumably I'm blocking them or they only scan to order, which I doubt given the way the page shows 90 day details.

[tedster]

It's certainly not well publicized. I suspect that some of the mysterious Google IP addresses that get reported here may be in play, but it hasn't been pinned down, not to my knowledge any way. This might make a good topic for our Search Engine Spider Identification [webmasterworld.com] forum.

[Receptional Andy]

I think Google are largely reliant on third-party data for their malware detection. Remember their explanation for the glitch [webmasterworld.com]?

Is it possible that who I'm hosted with could be affecting my rankings

If you're hosted at the same IP address as a troublesome spammer, then I have no doubt this could cause you problems. Otherwise, I think any impact is negligible. If you look at sites on the same IP, the same ranges or the same network then it's easy to come across some crazy connections between sites. But I doubt it has any effect on a typical evaluation of a page for relevancy.

[g1smd]

Interesting site (and your mention of IP reminded me to use the IP: search on live.com for something I was meant to do last week. Erk!)

[tedster]

incrediBILL started a thread in the spider detection forum:

[webmasterworld.com...]

The regulars in there will be the best folks to spot a dedicated malware detection spider, if indeed one exists.