SiteAdvisor: Fighting the Good Fight
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The Web is filled with all sorts of scumware designed to annoy you or spy on you — perhaps both. Fortunately, tools are constantly being designed or updated to help you defend yourself against these threats. One such tool is SiteAdvisor from McAfee.
SiteAdvisor is a add-on to Internet Explorer or Firefox and appears as a small button in either browser. This button displays in green, yellow, or red colors to indicate safe, caution, or warning, respectively, depending on the site you visit and what information it has on it. You can select View Site Details from its menu to find out why it has rated a site as such.
When you perform a search on Google or Yahoo icons associated with each level of rating appear next to each of the search results. When you roll your mouse over these icons you get a summary of its rating with an option to view more details.
SiteAdvisor does not filter content nor is it a type of parental control software. Rather, it simply provides you with information on a site prior to you visiting it so you can decide for yourself if you want to visit it or not. If a site is a known contributor of spyware/phishing/spam/viruses, you’re probably better off avoiding that site and going somewhere else.
This is similar to what I reported on not too long ago about the online service known as Scandoo. It, too, runs checks on sites and informs why you should or should not be leary of a site before visiting it on search results.
There are three main differences you’ll find between these two defenders of the common Web surfer:
- The information in their rollovers (when you rollover their icons in search results) is displayed slightly different (no big deal).
- Scandoo is a search engine that you go to and SiteAdvisor is a tool you install in your browser, so it goes where you go.
- SiteAdvisor tells you what it knows about a site as you’re visiting it by virtue of its button in your browser by changing colors. More details for a site are always just a click away.
During my initial tests I noticed a considerable slowness to my Web surfing. I suspected that whatever sites I was visiting were being looked up on their servers, which is what should be happening. However, I’m not experiencing that same kind of slowness as of this writing. It could have been the time of day I was doing my tests — hard to tell.
Quick Overview
- Very useful tool that could help prevent the accidental download of viruses or spyware by informing you of the reputation a site has.
- May negatively impact speed of Web surfing (although my tests are not conclusive; just keep an eye on it).
- Provides useful information on sites you visit and does it dynamically as you surf.
- It does not block content and is not a filter — it’s just an informer.
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I’ve used SiteAdvisor since before McAfee took it over and found it helpful. You can also join the community to help keep the information accurate. Webmasters can add their sites for review, and web users can give their comments and experiences with individual sites.