WOT a great idea

Socially engineered free internet protection combining the ratings, reviews and comments of the internet community with Spam Cops and Blacklists to create a safer surfing environment. The equivalent of having ’shark net’ off the coast.

Thanks to this vigilante community we can shout with more certainty – ‘In the Web We Trust’

WOT is a basically a free Internet security addon for your browser. It helps to keep you safe from online scams, identity theft, spyware, spam, viruses and unreliable shopping sites by warning you before you interact with a potentially dangerous website. WOT provides a valuable and unobtrusive (until needed) early warning system.

Benefits of signing up to WOT and becoming part of the WOT community

• Ratings for over 20 million websites
• Downloaded over 1,000,000 times
• Free
• Browser addon is light and updates automatically
• WOT rating icons appear beside search results in Google, Yahoo!, Wikipedia, Gmail, etc.
• Customizable settings
• Security Scorecard shows rating details and user comments

How does it work?

• WOT users rate the website by scoring
  • Trustworthiness
  • Child safety
  • Vendor reliability
  • Privacy

• Provides early warning message on dangerous site

• Thereby reducing phishing, malware, spyware, adware and spam intrusion
• Provides icons on most of the major search engines defining the potential dangers of entering certain web URLs. Added surfing safety in combination with preview pane providers by ‘interclue‘ and ‘cooliris‘

WOT and WOT users provide protection against

• Adware - unsolicited commercial software that comes combined with a host application and displays advertising while the program is running or another triggering mechanism
• Phishing - ‘Cybercrook’ attacks are delivered through email, pop-up messages or malicious web sites to trick the recipient into revealing personal information, often financial. Risks are spam and identity theft. Once you have been tricked into revealing your personal information, your identity can be used to run up bills or commit crimes in your name.
• Spam - the electronic version of ‘junk mail’, unsolicited e-mail that advertises a service or product. Associated with viruses, malware and loss of productivity.
• Malware - or ‘malicious software’ is a broad category of software installed without your permission to damage your PC or spy on your computer activities. The most common types of malware are trojans, worms and viruses.

I have found WOT to be a great way to provide added protection whilst surfing and exploring new websites by avoiding potentially dangerous sites. The site ratings are generally very accurate and the comments helpful. Overall a very worthwhile addition to the toolbar

• Go to the website
• Download the Firefox toolbar
• Latest WOT newsletter
• Video of how it works
• Read more reviews
• Review by djsonik and great review and the TOP 50 reasons to use WOT