Do You Scandoo?

Posted by Ken

New here? You may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

Ever do a search at a search engine and come across a link that takes you to a site that has offensive material? Well, efforts are underway to protect you from that and more.

Scandoo is just such a service that reduces your risk of viewing offensive material as well as identify sites that may be known to spread spyware or other malicious software on your computer without your knowledge. It does this in three different flavors: a search engine that you visit just like you would Google; a toolbar that works in Firefox and Internet Explorer; and as a plugin for Firefox.

When you perform a search using one of these methods, Scandoo scrubs the results with its filters and presents you with links, only these have icons attached to them. These icons are are ratings based on what it know or thinks to be questionable or safe material.

For example, a checkmark indicates the content behind the link meets your security preferences. A question mark indicates that it’s not sure if those preferences are being met. And an ‘X’ indicates that it doesn’t meet them. To find out more you can roll your mouse over these icons to be greeted with a small pop-up that shows you the site definition used to rate that link. It also provides a link to redefine should you feel the need to override its decision.