In its bid to offer better search experience to its users, Google has been trying to implement Safe Browsing features in its offerings. We have Safe Browsing features that protect users from social engineering attacks, and carrying on with the trends, Google has now introduced a new one — henceforth, Google will now be blocking deceptive content and ads that lure users into clicking by disguising themselves as something else.
For example, the Download buttons that are actually advertisements, or something similar — soon to be blocked by Google!
Well, not really “blocked”, but you will receive a warning if you head towards such as a site. Something that looks like this:
And to define what comes under the jurisdiction of such warnings, here is what Google had to state:
Embedded content (like ads) on a web page will be considered social engineering when they either:
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Pretend to act, or look and feel, like a trusted entity — like your own device or browser, or the website itself.
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Try to trick you into doing something you’d only do for a trusted entity — like sharing a password or calling tech support.
You can learn more about this feature on this page, as well as see samples of such deceptive content. Also, if your website is affected by these changes, it might be the best time to act early and fix the deceptive content and ads, lest your page rank might suffer badly.