Domain Highlighting

Part of the way a user assesses the trustworthiness of a site is by checking the URL. For example, many users trust the Microsoft.com URL, and they might be willing to enter a user name and password into Microsoft.com if prompted.

Attackers can abuse the trust of URLs by using carefully structured URLs to trick users into thinking they are visiting a legitimate Web site, however. For example, a Web site owner might use the host name www.microsoft.com.contoso.com to make a user think they are visiting the www.microsoft.com site-even though contoso.com controls the address of the Web site.

Domain Highlighting helps users more easily interpret URLs to avoid deceptive Web sites that attempt to trick users with misleading addresses. It does this by highlighting the domain name in the address bar in black, with the remainder of the URL string appearing in gray, making for easier identification of the site's true identity. In this example, if there are distracting elements in the URL (such as an outside domain name), they appear in the lighter shade of gray. The user's attention is instead drawn to the black text.

Domain Highlighting cannot completely eliminate the risk of attackers using malicious URLs to trick users. However, it does help to reduce the risk.