Google Safe Browsing
Url blocklist in Privacy & security
Blocks known phishing and malware sites in major browsers and people say it prevents real harm. Common caveat: it reacts slowly and sometimes blocks legitimate sites.
Blocks known phishing and malware sites in major browsers and people say it prevents real harm. Common caveat: it reacts slowly and sometimes blocks legitimate sites.
44 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 12
- criticize it
- 32
- approval share
- 27%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 12 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 0.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, not met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Protects users from phishing and scams
“if it stops just one person from losing their life's savings, suffering physical harm, or psychological trauma, yeah, your blog being on GSB is worth it”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “Companies like Google are expected by the public and governments alike to protect their users.”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “that doesn't make a difference, they're still being protected”
Comment from 6 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” Low false positives in practice
“Safe Browsing's false-positive rate is extremely low”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain” “I'd rather this than accidentally block legit sites.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” Good enough even if imperfect
“cutting even 5% of malicious sites from a user's experience is an unmitigated win for that user”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “The fact that Safe Browsing even works is already good enough.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Blocks legitimate sites by mistake
“Google bots decided that my parody website constitutes phishing and is now automatically blocked in Chrome and Firefox”
Comment from 5 Jan 2026 in “Google Broke My Heart” “Google is making false statements about the safety of a domain and it has significant collateral damage.”
Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain” “I've managed to get mine listed there and immediately banned on all major browsers.”
Comment from 14 Apr 2026 in “A new spam policy for "back button hijacking"” - Comment from 25 Feb 2026 in “Never Buy A .online Domain”
Slow to catch new phishing sites
“It has absolutely struggled to keep up with the recent explosion of automated, highly targeted spear-phishing and MFA-bypass proxy kits.”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “Phishing sites that stay up long enough often go for 3-4 months before Google finally deems it apt to block them.”
Comment from 8 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “If that protection is fundamentally reactive, catching threats hours or days after they go live”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” Sends browsing data to Google
“you're telling google every website you go to, but chances are the site already has google analytics or SSO”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February” “where it connects to a Google server every day without most people's consent or even knowledge”
Comment from 16 May 2026 in “Building a UMatrix Replacement” Relies on Google's central blocklist
“other browsers also just use googles web good boy list and if you report false positives point you towards google and cover their ears”
Comment from 20 May 2026 in “Google Search as you know it is over” “SafeBrowsing is a black list, and it doesn't provide the necessary level of safety.”
Comment from 11 Aug 2026 in “The UK's War on Anonymity Has Come to America” “I cannot fully trust a centralized URL checker on a remote server that I don’t own”
Comment from 5 Mar 2026 in “Google Safe Browsing missed 84% of phishing sites we found in February”
What people said
40 of the 51 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“the entire domain and all subdomains are whitelisted, so that detection never seems to actually fire.”
“SafeBrowsing is a black list, and it doesn't provide the necessary level of safety.”
“report it to safe browsing”
“which if their tests reproduce the problem will make most browsers unwilling to load the domain”
“other browsers also just use googles web good boy list and if you report false positives point you towards google and cover their ears”
“where it connects to a Google server every day without most people's consent or even knowledge”
“I've managed to get mine listed there and immediately banned on all major browsers.”
“blocks whole alternative stores through 'safe browsing' flags”
“Phishing sites that stay up long enough often go for 3-4 months before Google finally deems it apt to block them.”
“that doesn't make a difference, they're still being protected”
“if it stops just one person from losing their life's savings, suffering physical harm, or psychological trauma, yeah, your blog being on GSB is worth it”
“Companies like Google are expected by the public and governments alike to protect their users.”
“cutting even 5% of malicious sites from a user's experience is an unmitigated win for that user”
“The purpose of "Safe Browsing" is to send your URLs to Google.”
“it flagged all 9 of the legitimate sites in our dataset as suspicious”
“I cannot fully trust a centralized URL checker on a remote server that I don’t own”
“I know for a fact that GSB contains non-malicious sites in its dataset.”
“It would seem their service identifies only phishing sites as legitimate ones.”
“you can get these numbers if your deep scan filter is isSuspicious() { return true; }”
“I'd rather this than accidentally block legit sites.”
“you're telling google every website you go to, but chances are the site already has google analytics or SSO”
“If that protection is fundamentally reactive, catching threats hours or days after they go live”
“If GSB would have that ratio, it would be absolute unusable”
“Would you use anything that was only 16% effective for its claimed purpose?”
“It has absolutely struggled to keep up with the recent explosion of automated, highly targeted spear-phishing and MFA-bypass proxy kits.”
“due to the consequences of being wrong, or the implications for censorship”
“The fact that Safe Browsing even works is already good enough.”
“It is the moment like that where it looks obvious for third parties to use it and only it to vet customers.”
“disabling domains because of Safe Search is based only on web contents”
“This person didn't submit his website to Google and now Google blocks visitors.”
“Google is making false statements about the safety of a domain and it has significant collateral damage.”
“Safe Browsing's false-positive rate is extremely low”
“But Google was at fault for not correcting their blacklist.”
“someone would eventually put "too much faith" on this list”
“more than a hundred thousand of websites would be and that would still be an issue”
“they used the "Google Safe Browsing" blacklist to get the author to involve Google somehow”
“this is precisely the slippery slope I warned about a decade ago”
“Google bots decided that my parody website constitutes phishing and is now automatically blocked in Chrome and Firefox”
“Do not underestimate the power of Google Safe Browsing.”
“The safe browsing scam is the biggest fraud ever because providers can't opt out of it”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.