Site Advisor by McAfee

We do not recommend specific utilities software unless we've tested them and believe them to be beneficial. Many perfectly good utilities like Norton Antivirus and McAfee Antivirus have grown into memory hogs that cause nearly as much trouble as the viruses and spyware and hackers they claim to protect you from. Moreover, none of the major players will protect you from everything unless you buy their over price suites.

Typically these suites get so intricate that the user can not properly configure them. We get a lot of service calls on computers that won’t go on the internet at all because the “protection” suites have shut them down. Just as often we see people that have been infected even when the suite is installed, typically because they could not figure out what to “allow” what to “block” what is an update or when it is or isn’t automatic.

There are many small little programs out there, most of them free, that will give excellent protection if you use good judgment in your surfing habits.

Recently I found a test on the internet that let me find out just how good my judgment is, and I was surprised to say that I can be fooled pretty easily.

Since I am often referred to as "The Geek", I figure if they can fool me, some of my customers are in real trouble.

The test was put out by Site Advisor. Site Advisor is a free utility that works inside most search engines, and tells you if the site you are getting ready to click on is safe , questionable, or down right dangerous.

You can take the test yourself by clicking here and of course you can follow the links on the site to download the free software.

Now there's good and bad news.

The good news is the software puts a little button on your toolbar which lights up green or red (or yellow) when you enter a website, so you know real quick if you want to be there. And if you search with any of the compatible search engines (Google, Yahoo, or MSN) it will give you a green check box or red "X" that expands into an explanation if you hold your mouse over it.

The bad news is that McAfee recently purchased Site Advisor, and so we can't expect it to remain free. It will probably end up in one of those memory hog suites that I mentioned in the beginning.

Still, for now it is a freestanding application, and it is a free download, so I'm using it. Just the other day I needed to search for a download manger in order to successfully download Windows Vista Beta 2, and SiteAdvisor warned me away from the 1st three site I found!

-Steve Weigle

P.S. Speaking of Spyware and Spam, the following is a bit of Spam I got from McAfee regarding SiteAdvisor. I'm reprinting it so you can see what they have to say.

The moment of truth happens a billion times a day on the naked Web. Should I click or should I go? Is this site safe or a potential spam, spyware or fraud trap? Now there's help.

New McAfee SiteAdvisor tests, analyzes and rates websites for unsafe or annoying practices such as dangerous downloads, spamming, misuse of personal information, browser hijacking, bait-and-switch practices and other flat-out cyber scams.

Available as a free Internet Explorer plug-in and Firefox extension, McAfee SiteAdvisor is so simple, even mom (or dad) can use it in minutes. Download it here.

The ultimate online bodyguard

At a glance, McAfee SiteAdvisor helps you sidestep possible identity theft traps, online security threats and nuisances. On popular search engines, McAfee SiteAdvisor's easy-to-understand safety ratings—red (danger), yellow (information) or green (safe)—appear next to search results. Click the warnings and see detailed safety reports on millions of McAfee Site Advisor-tested sites, including information like:

How much spam (and what kind) you're likely to receive by handing over your email address.
The risk of downloading files or programs.
Site links to other suspect websites.
Candid comments by fellow surfers.

Seeing is believing.

Install McAfee SiteAdvisor and do a search for "screensavers" on Google, Yahoo! or MSN. In this category, most sites come up red, including adjacent sponsor ads. But there are plenty of green sites—the key is knowing the difference.

Like an early warning system, McAfee SiteAdvisor helps you make informed choices when you surf or transact online. For added protection, as you browse, a small McAfee SiteAdvisor button on your browser toolbar changes color based on McAfee SiteAdvisor's safety rating for each site you visit.

So far, McAfee SiteAdvisor's patent pending technology has crawled and rated more than 95% of the known Web with coverage growing daily.

Take the McAfee SiteAdvisor Spyware Quiz

On instinct alone, a startling 97% of surfers can't always distinguish a safe website from an unsafe one. So says a McAfee SiteAdvisor survey [May 2006] of more than 100,000 users who looked at eight pairs of sites promoting everything from screensaver to smiley face downloads.

Only 3 out of 100 picked out the safe site each time. What fools us? Overlooking license agreement small print that asks you to agree to additional downloads (often harboring spyware or adware), a pretty page design, even the mere presence of well-known advertisers.

"Folks are overestimating their ability to spot spyware," says McAfee SiteAdvisor strategist Shane Keats. "The bad guys are good at making their sites look very professional, very slick, and it's becoming even harder to know when you're wandering into a dark alley."

Think you can sniff out the good from the bad? Take McAfee SiteAdvisor's Spyware Quiz here.

Steve Weigle is the Founder and President of The Village Geek