Saying that web site hacking and other forms of abuse is on the rise, Google has announced plans to step up the notifications it sends to webmasters when the company finds these problems.

Beginning this month, Google will use the Message Center area in Google Webmaster Tools to notify site owners about
•    Spammy or abused user-generated content
•    Abused forum pages or egregious amounts of comment spam
•    Suspected hacking

When possible, the alerts will include specific pages that Google believes have been compromised by a third party.

In order to receive the alerts, webmasters obviously need to be signed up and have verified their site(s) in Webmaster Tools. Site owners who haven't done that yet will be able to retrieve messages from Google going back a year.

By Matt McGee