MyWOT.com
WOT: Web of Trust | Crowd-sourced website ratings
Web of Trust provides community-powered tools that boost trust on the web. Web of Trust (WOT) is the leading community-based safe surfing tool that uses an intuitive traffic-light rating system to help web users stay safe as they search, surf and shop online.
Overview
Web site ratings are powered by a fast growing worldwide community of 22 million users who have rated the reputation of over 31 million websites based on their experiences in terms of trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety. The WOT add-on provides safety ratings to search results when using Google, Yahoo!, Bing, Wikipedia, and other popular sites, helping people protect their computers and personal information.
WOT also shows reputation ratings of shortened URLs and next to links in social networking sites Facebook and Twitter.
The free Internet security add-on works with Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera and Safari browsers and can be downloaded at MyWot.com.
WOT’s crowd-sourced reputation data is licensed by search engines, social networks, anti-porn filters, school systems and local law enforcement to help keep Internet users safe from untrustworthy sites.
How does WOT work?
First, you need to download the WOT add-on. Downloading and using the WOT add-on is free of charge.
After you install the add-on, you can register as a user. Registering is free of charge and optional. You are able to use the WOT add-on and also rate websites without registering. However, registered users have access to a full range of features that allow you to:
- Create a user profile
- Write comments on websites' scorecards
- Post on our forum and blog
You can access WOT ratings by clicking the round WOT icon which is visible in your browser's toolbar. When you click it you see the reputation of the website you are currently using. The WOT icon is also visible after search engine results (e.g. Google, Bing or Yahoo) and in webmail applications after web links. In these cases, when you hover your mouse cursor over the icon you see the reputation of the website in question. WOT has information on 31 million websites, and the reputation database is updated every thirty minutes.
Website ratings are continuously updated by millions of members of the WOT community and from numerous trusted sources, such as malware and phishing blacklists.
Watch the WOT demo here
The WOT Security Scorecard
Each website has a page in WOT where you can see detailed rating information about the site. This page is called a scorecard. You can access a scorecard by:
- Clicking the WOT icon in your toolbar and choosing ”View scorecard for rating details”
- Clicking the WOT icons after search engine results and email links in webmail
Here is an example: MyWot.com/scorecard/AboutUs.org
WOT members can rate a website using four components:
- Trustworthiness reflects the overall trustworthiness of a website: Do you consider this site safe to use? Does this site deliver you what it promises? Do you trust the content of the website? A poor rating may indicate Internet scams, identity theft risks, credit card fraud, phishing, viruses, adware or spyware. The site may contain annoying advertisements, excessive pop-ups or content that makes your browser crash. A poor rating may also indicate that the site's content is not trustworthy.
- Vendor reliability tells you whether the site is safe for buying and selling or for business transactions in general. An “excellent” rating indicates superior customer service, timely delivery of products or services and overall customer satisfaction. A "poor" rating indicates possible fraud or a bad shopping experience.
- Privacy tells you whether the site has a privacy policy that protects your personal identity and data. For example, does the social networking service you use give you the means to determine what is public and what remains private? Does the site have opt-in privacy options? A "poor" rating indicates concern that your data may be sold to 3rd parties, be stored indefinitely or be turned over to law enforcement without a warrant, etc.
- Child safety indicates if the site contains age-inappropriate material. This includes mature content meant for adults: Content depicting nudity, sexual content, violence, vulgar or hateful language or content that encourages dangerous or illegal activities.
Privacy
The WOT software collects information only for computing website ratings, performing statistical analysis, and preventing abuse of the service. Any information that is no longer needed for these purposes is deleted. When loading reputations for the websites you visit, the software sends the service only the encrypted hostname and any ratings you may choose to give. The information about domains visited is stored only temporarily for computing ratings. Your IP address is never stored in the WOT database. Read the Privacy Policy.
Recognition
- The New York Times Riva Richmond, The New York Times Personal Tech online May 19, 2010. "Five Ways to Keep Online Criminals at Bay" [1] Free tools like the Firefox add-on Web of Trust can also help (detect malicious sites) — warning about potentially dangerous links...
- Kim Komando The Kim Komando Show July 7, 2009. "Easily avoid malicious Web sites" [2] Surfing the Web is a blast. There are so many cool sites, videos and programs to find. There are also a bunch of malicious sites out there. Learning to avoid...
- PC World Preston Gralla, PC World April 26, 2009. "Say WOT? Web of Trust Rates Web Site Safety" [3]: The Web becomes more dangerous every day. Malware has become ubiquitous, scam sites proliferate, and there are constant privacy dangers...
- Chip Online Chip August 4, 2009. "WOT für Internet Explorer" [4] Mit dem kostenlosen Add-on WOT für den "Internet Explorer" erhalten Sie beim Surfen durch das Internet Informationen über die Seriösität...