Google Launches Suspicious Site Reporter Extension, Chrome 75 Gets Deceptive URL Warning Feature

Google's Safe Browsing service is set to improve and Chrome 75 will warn users about deceptive website URLs.

By Harpreet Singh | Updated: 19 June 2019 13:51 IST

Google Launches Suspicious Site Reporter Extension, Chrome 75 Gets Deceptive URL Warning Feature

Photo Credit: Google

Google has released a new Chrome extension to let users report suspicious websites

Highlights

Google's Suspicious Site Reporter extension will improve Safe Browsing
Chrome 75 will warn users when they land on a deceptive URL
Google's Safe Browsing service keeps 4 billion devices safe on the web

It is becoming increasingly important to stay safe while browsing the Web. While tech-savvy users know how to protect themselves online, others may fall for malicious sites and online phishing scams. Google is trying to fix this with two new features that are aimed at protecting users from deceptive websites on the internet. On Tuesday, the search giant announced a new Chrome extension and a new feature within its Chrome Web browser to protect users.

Google Chrome already uses the company's Safe Browsing service which protects Chrome users from phishing attacks. Now, the company has launched a new Suspicious Site Reporter extension that will allow users to report suspicious websites to Google's Safe Browsing service.

Google's Safe Browsing service protects more than 4 billion devices every day, according to the company. The service warns users when they land on suspicious websites or when they try to download malicious files that may harm their computer system. The Safe Browsing service is used across different browsers and platforms.

Until now, Google's Safe Browsing service has been building up a list of deceptive websites all by itself. Google automatically analyses websites crawled by its spiders and marks them dangerous or deceptive. The new Suspicious Site Reporter extension will make the Safe Browsing service even better by letting users report malicious websites.

Google Chrome users can download and install the free Suspicious Site Reporter extension and they'll see an icon whenever they land on a suspicious website. Chrome will also reveal more information about the website and why it has been marked as 'suspicious'. Users can click on the icon and report websites they feel are unsafe and Google will add it to its Safe Browsing service after evaluating it.

Another useful feature Google has added to Chrome is the ability to track down deceptive sites. The feature is rolling out in Chrome 75, which will display a warning to the user, asking them to visit the correct website. This is useful when scammers try to trick users by simply replacing single or multiple characters of a URL.

Google says its new feature works by comparing the URL of the webpage you're currently on with URLs of the webpages you've visited recently. If the URL turns out to be deceiving, Google Chrome will warn you about it.

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Further reading: Google, Google Chrome, Google Chrome 75

Harpreet Singh

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Harpreet is the community manager at Gadgets 360. He loves all things tech, and can be found hunting for good deals when he is not shopping online. He has written about deals and e-commerce in India for many years, as well as covering social media and breaking technology news. More