Google has crunched the numbers of how many devices its Safe Browsing tool is protecting, and it's now well over 3 billion devices.
It's no mystery that the internet is full of malicious websites that attempt to phish users and infect their devices with malware, to name a few of the lurking dangers online. That's why Google implemented this safety feature, constantly improving and updating it to identify the latest threats.
"We identify sites that might try to phish you, or sites that install malware or other undesirable software. The systems that make up Safe Browsing work together to identify, analyze and continuously keep Safe Browsing's knowledge of the harmful parts of the internet up to date," Google says.
The Quiet Online Protector
Most users aren't even aware of the Safe Browsing tool working. For the most part, it more or less works in the background, never to be seen or heard from.
However, at times, when users do manage to run into a harmful website that tries to steal personal info or install malware, it pulls up an unmistakable warning in red that tells them to get out as soon as possible. It even keeps ads with fake download buttons at bay.
A Cause For Celebration
Back in 2007, Google rolled out the Safe Browsing tool, making this the 10th anniversary.
One more milestone worth noting is that the software has been protecting more than 2 billion devices in May 2016, and as mentioned earlier, that number went up by a whopping 1 billion more as of 2017.
For the record, this isn't limited to Chrome or other Google products. Both Safari and Firefox have been using Safe Browsing to keep their users, well, safe online too. That's not all either. Even such apps as Snapchat and web developers take advantage of it as well. Put simply, the big jump in covered devices is mainly due to these.
Interestingly enough, mobile devices called for a significant change in which Google had to consider such things as battery efficiency, slow and spotty connections, and mobile data. In other words, the company had to minimize the data Safe Browsing delivers, which is also to the benefit of desktop browsers as luck would have it.
To boil things down, Google is among the key players of keeping users safe from malware and phishing attempts on the internet, protecting more than 3 billion devices across various apps and browsers.
