While it is not unusual for antivirus companies and email providers to team up, it’s possible that this arrangement could go further than the typical partnership.

It’s no secret that Symantec has recently been looking for a search engine partner to help it deliver on what it calls the promise of Security 2.0.

At a recent company conference, Symantec demonstrated a mock-up of a web search engine, in which results were rated according to how trustworthy the sites were considered to be.

Sites believed to be harboring spyware or other malicious content were flagged as potentially dangerous, while sites believed safe were tagged as such. The technology came into Symantec’s possession when it bought WholeSecurity Inc.