The Web's Download Disasters: Spyware Filled Download Sites

[mandy]

When we first started crawling the Web looking for bad downloads last year, we weren't sure what we'd find. Today, a million Web sites and 140,000 download tests later, I can say with confidence that there are some great programs to be downloaded out there. I can say with equal confidence that there's also plenty of train wrecks waiting to happen to your PC.

Frowns All Around: Adroz dot com

Adroz dot com is a Smiley’s site – a place to get icons for your IM client. I was hard pressed to find anything safe to click there...

full article: http://blog.siteadvisor.com/2006/01/the_...rs_in.html

The article is from MIT startup SiteAdvisor.com's blog.  More info on SiteAdvisor and its upcoming security software is available at www.siteadvisor.com .  You can also signup to be a preview tester of their software here: http://www.siteadvisor.com/previewsignup.html

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.

[mandy]

SiteAdvisor has released a plugin for Firefox browsers:

With an ambitious mission to use automated crawlers to test every Web site on the Internet, SiteAdvisor officially rolled out a free trial version of a browser plug-in that places a "safe," "caution" or "warning" label whenever a user visits a Web site.

The idea is to use the color-coded (red, yellow or green) system to mark every Web site and to help Web surfers determine if a site's content includes spyware, spam, viruses, browser-based exploits or online scams.

A green checkmark is appended to sites tested by SiteAdvisor and cleared as having no significant problems. However, if a Web site tries to change the user's browser defaults or send a lot of "non-spammy" e-mail, the service will take a use a yellow exclamation mark to caution users.

full article: http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1933818,00.asp

SiteAdvisor Plug-in for Firefox

When you search with Google, Yahoo! or MSN, SiteAdvisor's safety ratings appear next to search results.

As you browse, a small button on your browser toolbar changes color based on SiteAdvisor's safety results.

Menu options on SiteAdvisor's toolbar let you customize SiteAdvisor or see a site's detailed test results.

Detailed test results for every site are just one click away

SiteAdvisor web site: http://www.siteadvisor.com/preview/
free download: http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ie.html

[bargainbloodhound]

I installed the Firefox plugin.  Its best feature is that it also color codes the search results on Google, Yahoo, MSN so you can see which sites to avoid before clicking on a search result.

The one thing I noticed on Google searches is that the  AdWords advertised sites seem to have a higher percentage of "red" and "yellow" alerts than the natural search results on many searches.

[amy]

Here's an example of a SiteAdvisor site report:

http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/amazon.com

[stardust]

Okay, I downloaded it.  I guess the 'button' changes color with the various site ratings.  Should be an interesting little tool to watch.........

[regic]

A plugin is available for IE too: http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ie.html
The new URL for the Firefox plugin is http://www.siteadvisor.com/download/ff.html

[Anita]

I had to laugh after reading this review from a SiteAdvisor reviewer concerning eBay...

"You can expect fair and honest practices by the eBay company."

I want what he is smoking.

[dnc_ont]

"You can expect fair and honest practices by the eBay company."

Maybe that goes along with the old line "All is fair in love, war and business"???