Windows 7: Explorer 8 Status Bar icons/pcguide.com malicious code?

I was trying to find out the meaning of the messages that appear on the lower left of the Internet Explorer 8 windows (in the status bar). I was visiting a site (pcguide.com) and I got a weird icon in that spot. I am worried I might have picked up a nasty bug from that site, because I had a hard time closing it (windows kept popping up).

You mean the shield looking icon? For me it was telling me IE blocked a popup, it correlated with the information bar sliding down at the top.

It's possible; I can't find information on it in the help file and it hasn't popped up again. I'm really annoyed at myself; when that window popped up, I knew better than to press the OK or CANCEL buttons, so I pressed the X in the upper right, but that made another window pop up. Norton says that the site is safe, but stil...