Antivirus Software for Search Engines: How Google Protects Consumers

As the largest internet search engine in the world, Google offers a secure web browser and three internet security applications as part of its Google Pack. You can download the company's free web browser, Google Chrome, and as of May 2011, the free pack includes three important security products: Avast Free Antivirus, Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus Software and Immunet Protect Free. You can download one or more of these three applications separately if you don’t want to install the entire Google Pack.

First, consider Google Chrome, which the search engine giant launched in 2008. The browser comes with several security features to keep your system safe while you view webpages online. Google Chrome uses Safe Browsing technology, sandboxing and auto-updates to protect your computer from malicious software, viruses and other attacks.

Google Chrome’s Safe Browsing feature provides warning messages before you visit a suspicious website. You get a full-screen warning letting you know if a site you intend to visit hosts malware. The browser's sandboxing feature prevents malicious software from installing itself on your computer, so you’re protected from attempts to steal private data from your hard drive. As its name suggests, the auto-update feature automatically maintains the latest version of Google Chrome so you always have the most up-to-date security features.

As a competitive search engine, Google also understands the need for downloadable security software. For example, Avast Free Antivirus includes several key protections, including antivirus, antispyware and website blocking. In addition to real-time scanning, you also get scheduled scan set up and on-demand scanning when you want to review your system between scheduled scans. The Avast product works with Windows XP, Vista and 7. You can download the product in eight languages, including French, German, Italian and Spanish.
Google search engine’s second product for internet safety is Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus. This free software protects you computer with what Google calls "advanced detection and removal." The product can detect and remove adware, key loggers, spyware and Trojans. Real-time protection includes blocking malicious software on launch.
For an upgrade of about $40 a year, which covers three computers, you can purchase Spyware Doctor with advanced cleanup features, such as:

• Spyware, virus and rootkit removal from deeply infected systems
• Advanced real-time protection, such as the removal of infected email attachments and tracking cookies
• Removal of zero-day malware, which is newly unleashed malicious software that does not yet have removal applications

In addition, the Google Pack contains Immunet Protect Free, a product developed by Sourcefire. The product combines information from all its users with the speed of cloud computing to create quick responses to global internet threats. The product works by collecting malware infection data and sending it to Immunet engines for analysis. When threats are found on a single user's computer, Immunet sends malware removal capability to that user and delivers protection to all Immunet users “within milliseconds.” Since Immunet's capabilities and updates exist within a cloud network, there’s never any need to download updates to individual computers.

As its name suggests, Immunet Protect Free comes at no cost when you download it separately or as part of the Google Pack. You can purchase an advanced version of Immunet Protect for about $20 that includes advanced features such as the ability to automatically clean infected files and scan email databases.

You can quickly and easily find all of these products using the Google search engine. Speedy downloads of both the web browser and the security products mean you’ll be up and running safely in no time, with all of the Google search engine technology supporting you.

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