Author Topic: SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats? (Read 25702 times)

brotherS · « **on:** March 02, 2006, 05:01 PM »

SiteAdvisor is testing all Web sites for spam, spyware, & safety threats. You browse and search as normal and their empirical data (green=good, yellow=caution, red=bad) appears in an icon in IE or Firefox & next to results in Google, Yahoo, & MSN. Every site gets its own site details page w/ in-depth analysis. They launched a slick redesign today.

They say:

http://img334.imageshack.us/img334/1526/siteadvisor4pw.png

SiteAdvisor - or do YOU like spam, spyware, & safety threats?

Sounds like a really, really great idea!

SiteAdvisor currently works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.

I will link to this thread from the Firefox extension thread too.

grabacontroller · « **Reply #1 on:** March 02, 2006, 05:15 PM »

Im using it right now and I use netcraft also to protect me against phishing sites.

clif_notes · « **Reply #2 on:** March 04, 2006, 10:20 AM »

Back in January, I wrote up a mini-review of SA. I have two versions of it.

SiteAdvisor - tells you what websites are not safe
reviewed by ClifNotes, Jan 2006

In the last issue of my newsletter, I happened to mention a blog from a service called SiteAdvisor. Two of you wrote in to ask me if it was safe. I've done some research and I will start recommending this very good service. In fact, I'm using it now myself.

The people who wrote in are correct in being concerned about this service. SiteAdvisor is an Internet Explorer toolbar and a Firefox extension you can download and install for free. SiteAdvisor tracks your web surfing and in return, they offer advice about the websites that appear in your web searches and the pages you actually load. I've been assured that this "tracking" by SiteAdvisor is completely anonymous and that it will never be sold to third party advertisers. This means that they can see where I'm surfing but they can't tell who I am when they are looking at their records.

Let's take a simple Google search for an example of what SiteAdvisor can do. Type in the word "screensaver" in Google and you'll see the screen below.

Screenshot - searching for screensavers

See larger image

Do you see the red "x" beside many of the entries. Notice that the entries for Screensaver.com are marked. I can confirm that this is a bad website. I wrote an article about it last year that warns people away from it. It gives me a bad feeling to see that Screensaver.com is a "sponsored" link at Google. The problem is that all the other search engines will give you nearly the same "sponsored" links. Who can you trust? SiteAdvisor can help us with that problem.

SiteAdvisor places red, yellow, or green icons beside the sites it knows about to help you make informed decisions about where you want to go online. It also includes a colored button in your web browser to tell you about the website you are currently browsing.

Right now this service is in a testing phase, but you can still try it out to see if you like it. I'm hoping that SiteAdvisor will continue to offer this service for free, once they are finished testing it.

Quote from SiteAdvisor.com

SiteAdvisor helps protect you from all kinds of Web-based security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft.
---

Source:
http://snipurl.com/IP_SiteAdvisor
http://freewarewiki....wiki.com/SiteAdvisor

brotherS · « **Reply #3 on:** March 04, 2006, 10:24 AM »

Thanks clif_notes, nice review!

clif_notes · « **Reply #4 on:** March 04, 2006, 10:28 AM »

Almost forgot to mention. Since that article I've learned that SA will continue to offer a free service.
See http://freewarewiki....0205#SiteAdvisorNews

I also got a freebie from SA, a cool beta-tester T-shirt.

mouser · « **Reply #5 on:** March 05, 2006, 04:43 PM »

housetier found this which is quite a good read: http://blog.siteadvisor.com/

skywalka · « **Reply #6 on:** April 22, 2006, 09:13 AM »

This seems like a really good idea. I'm trying it now. Thanx 4 posting.

clif_notes · « **Reply #7 on:** April 23, 2006, 03:35 PM »

I had recently noticed that SiteAdvisor has been aquired by McAfee. I was concerned they might drop the free version until I read this:

From the CEO:

McAfee will be working with us to accelerate feature development and bring you new ways to use SiteAdvisor and to stay safe and in control online.

We greatly admire the technology and people behind McAfee, and we can’t think of a better partner to help take SiteAdvisor to the next level.

As we begin to integrate with McAfee, you’ll notice lots of improvements over the coming months. But a few things won’t be changing:

* The free features in the current SiteAdvisor software. They will remain free to our current users and will continue to be available for free on our Web site for new users.
* Our commitment to provide objective safety ratings which are free from conflicts of interest.
* Our willingness to probe deeply into the actions of the malicious players on the Web and to work hand in hand with you, the SiteAdvisor community, to expose them.

Source: http://blog.siteadvi...or_to_the_next.shtml

I noticed no promise to keep it free forever, but nobody can promise that.

mouser · « **Reply #8 on:** July 07, 2006, 01:05 AM »

grabacontroller mentioned this above, but alex3f just told me again about the netcraft toolbar which ranks security of sites and gives you some background info.. cool and works for ie and ff, and is free:

http://toolbar.netcraft.com/

clif_notes · « **Reply #9 on:** July 07, 2006, 01:15 AM »

Thanks for the mention. I think I'll give it a try ...

I've got multiple copies of Portable Firefox and I'll fix one up for a trial run!

Have fun!

clif_notes · « **Reply #10 on:** July 07, 2006, 01:26 AM »

Acckkkkk!

Netcraft failed it's first and only test from me!

View the difference in these two reports
http://www.siteadvis...tes/screensavers.com
http://toolbar.netcr...www.screensavers.com

I've had personal first-hand experience with screensaver.com and I know that it's not good, yet NetCraft makes no mention of it. Not only that, SA will warn you before you click on a site in a search engine. NetCraft only tells you about the site after you've arrived.

It's history ...

mouser · « **Reply #11 on:** July 07, 2006, 01:51 AM »

thanks for the report cliff, good to know which one to trust most

rjbull · « **Reply #12 on:** July 07, 2006, 03:58 AM »

I had recently noticed that SiteAdvisor has been aquired by McAfee. I was concerned they might drop the free version until I read this:

[...]

I noticed no promise to keep it free forever, but nobody can promise that.
-clif_notes (April 23, 2006, 03:35 PM)

If you click on the "Do sites pay to be rated?" button, the message includes this text:

The basic version of our software is free of charge. In the future, we will offer paid versions with additional premium features.

app103 · « **Reply #13 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:23 AM »

I just installed SA and I think it's great...but my default browser is not supported.

Hopefully AOLex is one of the ones they plan on supporting in the future.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #14 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:42 AM »

Is this forum losing messages again? I'm sure I posted a thread about SA ages ago (before MacAFee acquired it).

The other one to look at too is http://www.firetrust...etrustsitehound.html which has both free and commercial versions but currently onloy supports Internet Explore (a Firefox version has been promised for the last few months but there is no sign of it yet).

I have tried SA and Sitehound - and at the moment SA has the edge.

mouser · « **Reply #15 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:44 AM »

it's not losing messages but the search on smf is not the best..

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #16 on:** July 07, 2006, 08:55 AM »

Strange - I have just done a manual search (using firefox page search) of all my messages this year and the word "Advisor" doesn't appear (apart from this thread). I know I posted about SiteAdvisor ... IIRC I even post an image ?

mouser · « **Reply #17 on:** July 07, 2006, 09:46 AM »

you know what might be a nice feature -
an option to have the forum email you any post you make, for your permanent records.

app103 · « **Reply #18 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:27 AM »

Strange - I have just done a manual search (using firefox page search) of all my messages this year and the word "Advisor" doesn't appear (apart from this thread). I know I posted about SiteAdvisor ... IIRC I even post an image ?
-Carol Haynes (July 07, 2006, 08:55 AM)

Codey has it hidden away in his stockpile somewhere.

you know what might be a nice feature -
an option to have the forum email you any post you make, for your permanent records.
-mouser (July 07, 2006, 09:46 AM)

great idea!

momonan · « **Reply #19 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:39 AM »

I know it's laborious -- and not the solution you want -- but you can always look through your OWN posts (or any known poster) by going to your (or their) profile and clicking on "show posts" in the box at the left.

Carol Haynes · « **Reply #20 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:54 AM »

That's what I did and searched page by page.

momonan · « **Reply #21 on:** July 07, 2006, 10:56 AM »

You all probably already know this, but to find a person's profile, you go to "view the supporter yearbook" at the top right. Then "sort by user name." Then the letter of the alphabet where their name would be listed (this way, you don't have to know the exact spelling).

Another way to see all the posts someone has made would be to click on their name by a post they have made. This will take you to the summary of their profile, and at the bottom, you will see a link to "see recent posts," which will take you too all their posts.