Site Advisor

[makaveli]

First of all the link www.siteadvisor.com

 

what is it?

a program/plugin for firefox and IE (not opera at current) that sites in your browsers toolbar and allows you to see via a "traffic light system" if a site is.

safe, mainly ok or dangerous

 

dangerous meaning, it could be a scam, or downloads may be viruses, it also tags your google searches with a traffic light so you know in a search what not to click, it is useful as most red sites are just link farms etc.

 

in all its a nice little piece of kit to use, TCH gets a green light and users can review sites and say that they are happy with it

[youneverknow]

Sorry, gotta pass on this...I will NOT install McAfee (products) on this computer. McAfee is known for problems.

youneverknow

[JTD]

Sorry, gotta pass on this...I will NOT install McAfee (products) on this computer. McAfee is known for problems.

youneverknow

 

 

Actually it really isn't anything you install per say. It is just as it says. A site adviser. Here are some shots of what it says about the TCH Forums.

 

[TCH-Bruce]

Actually it really isn't anything you install per say. It is just as it says. A site adviser.

But it IS something you download and install.

[makaveli]

you can manually go to siteadvisors site and check sites, but if you want to know about every site you need the plugin, it has provided no trouble for me, it's simply a firefox extension

[JTD]

you can manually go to siteadvisors site and check sites, but if you want to know about every site you need the plugin, it has provided no trouble for me, it's simply a firefox extension

 

 

And A very good one at that. I know it has saved my bacon when I have been googling for information.

[makaveli]

it's also good to make searching worthwhile.

 

if you classic example look for "free ríngtónes you can simply ignore the red sites as they will more than likely be these SMS subscription ones that ruin your bill, or links to links to links.

 

for example take a look at "free smileys"

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/starware....fe&aff_id=0

thats a bad one

 

this one passes

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/freesmile...ch&aff_id=0

Edited February 5, 2007 by makaveli

[TCH-Thomas]

Just a little note on the "good" site example in Makavelis post...

 

The site have a flash banner that goes to smileycentral.com which is (sort of) considered bad by the siteadvisor.com, so do not click this banner.

[makaveli]

yeah unfortunately its not 100& fool proof there

but if they do link to other "unsafe" stuff you can leave comments

 

unfortunately a lot of the time the smiley central and similar links are added by these places where you allow a "group" to put a series of links on your site,

the best example to mind is how myspace gets these "get a free i-pod" things.

a trusted site getting "bad" banners

[TCH-Bruce]

a trusted site getting "bad" banners

That's an oxymoron if I ever heard one. If a site is hosting "bad" banners why would you trust it?

[makaveli]

well lets for example use the example of myspace

i use it to keep "in the know" and in contact with people i know.

 

myspace the site, i trust (after making sure i dont get spammed by bands and only people i know can "see me")

but the banners who are managed by a separate business doo get a bit annoying.

 

the free 'tones or ipod ones are a pain but ones that have other "nsfw" type banners i dont trust. either that or the mosquito advert ones are annoying.

i see them less an risk more of a web annoyance

Edited February 5, 2007 by makaveli

[carbonize]

myspace the site, i trust (after making sure i dont get spammed by bands and only people i know can "see me")

but the banners who are managed by a separate business doo get a bit annoying.

 

That's an understatement. MySpace displayed a banner last year that utilised a Windows vulnerability to infect everyone who viewed it with spyware or a botnet trojan. I can't remember which. Most browser now warn about phishing sites and Google actually warns if you click on a link from a search and they consider it to be bad.

[mike]

Well, site advisor red-flagged me saying after filling out forms they recieved 2.1 spam emails per week.

 

I wrote them and told them that I HAVE NO FORMS to fill out so that can't be right.

 

They said I would have to wait until I came around for another test before it would change.

 

Therefore - They have me red-flagged for no reason.

 

MCAFEE SITE ADVISOR

[carbonize]

I checked the review of my site and all is green. I then checked a friends site (yahelite.org) and he had been given a bad review by someone who runs the site of a rival program and is constantly causing trouble. I emailed McAfee explaining about this and even offering then proof that this guy is just against us but they basically said thanks for reporting it but tough. I mean this moron has gone so far as to put our programs logo over the Nazi flag and use it as a forum avatar.

[mike]

That's the problem, as far as I can see.... you can get a red flag and not deserve it but it's going to BE THERE for quite some time before McAfee decides to review your site again.

 

So if someone comes to my site and has it installed, they will see the red flag and go elsewhere.

That's WRONG. My site has NO FORMS to fill out and I send out NO EMAIL of any kind.

 

It's just a bad deal as far as I can see; and no way to fight it.

 

Hmm, maybe a lawsuit threat?