Google Trends a bit dodgy right now?

It pays to be careful these days when surfing the Net because nothing is sacred to spammers, scammers and other worldwide nasties.
According to Computer World on 27 February:
"Cyber crooks are using one of Google's own tools to poison search results with links that spread fake security software, a researcher said Thursday.
"Malware distributors have abused Google Trends before," said Craig Schmugar, a senior threat researcher with McAfee. "But I've never seen them use it as aggressively as they are now."
Google Trends, a tool the search giant rolled out last June, highlights the most popular searches of the past hour. At mid-day Thursday, for instance, the No. 1 search phrase, according to Trends, was "Obama budget."
Scammers and malware makers are closely monitoring Google Trends to guide them in selecting search phrases and legitimate news content, which they then integrate into their own fly-by-night sites, said Schmugar. The idea is to "game" Google into ranking their malware-hosting sites near the top on scores of high-profile, current events-related search results.
"I'm not talking about just a few sites," Schmugar said. "I've collected a lot of them, with poisoned links [in Google search results] that are pretty high up, almost always in the top 10."

And Google Flu Trends is raising privacy concerns itself, with "The Electronic Privacy Information Center filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request asking US federal officials to disclose how much user search data the company has recently transmitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, as part of its Google Flu Trends effort."
However, Google Inc deserves a pat on the back for its "This site may harm your computer" function even if it has a few glitches.