Safe Internet Browsing with WOT

Why Safe Internet Browsing is Important

Browsing Internet following safe practices is the key to your PC Security. Rash clicking on every URL you encounter without giving a damn thought on where that click is likely to lead you, can harm your Internet Security more than any other act. No security software, howsoever perfect and updated it is, can provide you safety if you are not careful on what your are clicking on the Internet.

Having said that, it is also true that even if you are careful enough to pause before clicking and think about the possible destination, there are always chances to go wrong. With the daily changing tactics of malware writers, the carriers of these malware are also devising newer strategies to infect you and your system.

In such a scenario, you need a special tool, which could advise you about the safety of a URL before clicking it. There are a few tools available on Internet, which provide you such features, but unfortunately none of them is perfect and are always error prone.

Web of Trust (WOT)

WOT is one such tool, which is highly popular the world over. It is a community based tool, where the WOT community members give their vote on various parameters about a website, and based upon these votes, websites are marked whether they are safe to be visited or not.

WOT is a very powerful community, with some of the members very active andaccurate.

WOT is available as a browser extension and supports both of the most popular browsers today; i.e. Internet Explorer and Firefox.

But, Is WOT Always Accurate?

Most of the time, it gives fairly accurate results and can help you choose the websites, which your can browse safely. But still, I have seen many webmaster complaining that some of their websites have been erroneously marked as dangerous by some person, which might be having some vested interests against that website. This happens particularly when very few voters have cast the votes for a website and unluckily all of them have falsely gone against that website.

I have myself faced such a situation, when one of my perfectly legitimate blog was marked in RED zone by some some people, who gave their vote against it only because it was having some affiliate links selling some perfectly valid security software. I had to take the case to their forum. But the WOT community was very helpful and the website promptly came out of the RED zone, as soon as some other power members correctly evaluated the site.

Overall a useful tool to get first hand information about the legitimacy of a website. But my advice is; DO not rely entirely on WOT, use your own judgment also.

Download WOT

See WOT live in action in this video prepared by Debora from WOT.