No joke: Google marks Google.com, Tumblr as partially dangerous

Google's own safe browsing tool labelled "google.com" as "partially dangerous." It could be ironic as Google is one of the safest search engines. The tool, which automatically scans billions of URLs every day looking for unsafe websites, named Google.com for a potentially frightening problem.

"The tool, as of Wednesday 20 April, had still marked Google's home page with the message 'Some pages on google.com contain deceptive content right now.' The details go on to state that 'Some pages on this website install malware on visitors' computers' and 'Attackers on this site might try to trick you to download software or steal your information (for example passwords, messages, or credit card information", reports dna.

"Some pages on this website install malware on visitors' computers," the Safe Browsing Site Status page warned, adding that "[a]ttackers on this site might try to trick you to download software or steal your information."

"Google declined to comment on the site's status by Tuesday afternoon, but those ominous warnings likely don't mean that visiting "google.com" itself is dangerous. Instead, they suggest that some people have used Google services to host or link to something malicious, so the tool is flagging the whole domain as a little risky", reports The Washington Post.

Other popular websites that have been marked as dangerous include photo-sharing website tumblr.com and coding collaboration site github.com.

Also, Google Safe Site search has not listed other search engines like Bing.com and duckduckgo.com as dangerous.