Google is joining the battle against sites that host spyware or adware. It will warn users, via a popup, when they are about to follow a search result to a site that will download such malware.

The search giant is working as part of a 'badware' initiative, along with Sun and Lenovo, to flag websites that have previously been reported to StopBadware.org for distributing such software. More details at StopBadware.org, who describes itself a 'Neighbourhood Watch' campaign for the Web.

To tell stopBADware about badware or badware-distributing sites that you've encountered, please fill out and submit the form found at http://www.stopbadware.org/home/story. If you have technical expertise, please consider filling out a technical report at http://www.stopbadware.org/home/new.