Scalded Dog Web Hosting, a company owned by the Globe-Democrat's new owner Dan Rositano, is blacklisted on Google for being potentially damaging.

The announcement that the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, a newspaper that folded in the ’80s, would be revived in an online-only format was greeted with a bit of enthusiasm by people like myself (future unemployed journalists). A new outlet and possible place to freelance, I thought. Plus, the guy in charge, Dan Rositano, is the owner of an IT firm and former IT director for a TV channel.

Maybe an IT guy that understands technology better than some journalists is the right guy to start an online-only news organization?

After looking into Rositano’s business ventures, however, I am not convinced of that anymore.

Scalded Dog Web Hosting, one of Rositano’s businesses, has managed to get blacklisted by Google.

SDOGINTERACTIVE.COM, the domain in question, was registered June 13, 2007 through GoDaddy.com. According to the Missouri Secretary of State website, Scalded Dog Interactive, LLC was created January 15, 2008. It was registered by Rositano under the same address listed on the application for the St. Louis Globe Democrat, LLC.

A call to Rositano was not immediately returned, so I don’t have his side of the story. But, the fact that a Web Hosting company is blacklisted on the Web doesn’t leave a good first impression about the future of the new Globe-Democrat.

According to Google, the warning means that the website in question may try to install malicious software:

We want our users to feel safe when they search the web, and we’re continuously working to identify dangerous sites and increase protection for our users. This warning message appears with search results we’ve identified as sites that may install malicious software on your computer

The website is also blocked by Mozilla: