Yahoo's first step to better its users' experience after the nerve wracking Microsoft saga has been to partner with McAfee to deliver a safer Web search experience through Yahoo! Search - only to a select few countries.

Launching in beta, the new SearchScan feature by Yahoo! Search, powered by the McAfee SiteAdvisor technology, provides always-on alerts to users for "risky" sites with security concerns such as spyware, adware and other malicious software that can infect and damage a user's PC. SearchScan also identifies sites that have shown bad email practices, flooding user in-boxes with spammy emails.SearchScan is available only for Yahoo! Search users in the US, Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand and Spain. What about Asia Yahoo? It will be available to McAfee users in the coming months though. There's no indication of whether that too will be limited to McAfee users in select countries.

By integrating McAfee's technology into Yahoo! Search, sites that may harm the user's computer just by visiting them will be eliminated from appearing in Yahoo! Search results. SearchScan also alerts users to potentially risky sites with a red warning sign in search results, allowing users to proceed with caution. During this beta period, SearchScan displays McAfee alerts optimal for the Yahoo! Search user and does not include all McAfee SiteAdvisor red ratings.

After children's safety, 65 percent of Americans online are more worried about clicking unsecured search listings than the threat of neighborhood crime, getting ones wallet stolen or email scams. Users who conduct Web searches with Yahoo! will be warned about the many malicious and dangerous Web sites before they visit them.