Safe Browsing Made Easy: Benefits of Using Web of Trust

Staff Reporter, Tech Times 19 March 2020, 02:03 pm

Statistics suggest that there are nearly 1.3 billion websites in the world and approximately 500,000 new ones are created every 24 hours. These numbers are a major breakthrough in terms of the amount of information that is now available but they also bring on certain risks that users may not be fully aware of.

Among the top 10 security threats that users face while browsing through the internet you'll find malware, e-mail scams, and shortened links that lead to malicious websites and you can protect yourself from being exposed to those hazards by using a safe browsing app such as My Web of Trust.

MyWOT is an app that protects internet users from accessing potentially dangerous websites that may contain malicious software or that may not be credible or reputable enough to trust them with your personal information.

The app can be installed as an extension for Chrome, Opera, and Firefox, and it is also available on iOS and Android.

Throughout the following article we will provide detailed information about how the app works, how user-friendly is its interface and its overall user experience.

How does MyWot work?

One of the advantages of MyWOT is its simplicity and the reliability of its safety assessments. To evaluate a site, MyWOT uses a network of more than 140 million users who constantly rate and review the websites they visit. So far the app has rated over 90 million websites and that number continues to increase.

By using these reviews, a sophisticated machine learning algorithm analyzes the results and produces a comprehensive evaluation of the site's situation, presented through two distinctive elements.

Users Reviews

Users who have installed MyWOT extension or app can rate the sites they visit easily through a standard 5-star rating system and they can also leave a comment regarding their experience. Each month, more than 150,000 reviews are posted by users and each of them contributes to strengthening the ratings provided by the app.

These reviews, along with other sources, are combined and analyzed to produce an overall rating (a score from 1 to 5) for the site. Websites with 3 stars or more can be considered relatively safe and trustworthy while websites with less than 3 stars are usually flagged as risky.

Safe Browsing Feature

MyWOT also provides an assessment of the site's trustworthiness through a badge (also known as a 'donut') that varies in color based on the site's rating and its safeness for the user.

This 'donut' appears right next to the website's title if you are browsing through a search engine such as Google or it can also be checked by clicking the extension's icon on the right corner of the browser window.

What are the main benefits of installing MyWOT?

There are various advantages to installing extension such as MyWOT to increase the safeness of your browsing experience. Some of the main features include:

MyWOT lets you use other people's opinions about a site based on their past experiences and this provides the user with valuable information to make a decision about a potential purchase or sign up.
You can avoid downloading information or files from websites that have been negatively rated by the community which prevents you from being exposed to malware or phishing attempts.
You can participate in the community actively by rating each site you visit and this is an important contribution to make the internet a safer place for everyone.
Other users might leave comments that provide key insights about the website's functioning.

MyWOT's Installation & User Interface

Here are more details about how MyWOT's Chrome extension for Mac OS functions in practice, which could give the reader valuable insights into how the app works across the different platforms it supports.

Installation Process

For desktops, the MyWOT extension can be installed from the Chrome Web Store, the Firefox Browser Add-ons marketplace, or the Opera add-ons marketplace.

For mobile devices, on the other hand, the app can be downloaded from Google Play Store or from the App Store for iOS devices.

The installation process is fairly simple and it doesn't require that the user signs up, even though that is a possibility.

Once the extension is installed, an icon will appear in the upper right corner of the browser's window. This indicates that the installation process has been completed successfully.

User Interface

The app's interface can be divided into two sections:

Search engine safety assessments (aka. the 'donuts')
The extension's primary interface.

The search engine interface changes to incorporate a 'donut' right next to the website's title. These donuts vary in color depending on the site's trustworthiness and each color means the following:

Green donuts - the site is safe.
Yellow donuts - the site is suspicious.
Red donuts - the site is dangerous.
Grey donuts - there's not enough information to produce a rating.

The extension's interface, on the other hand, provides more detailed information about each website including a "Security" rating, a "Reputation" score, and the individual reviews that have been posted by My Web of Trust users.

Additionally, the extension has a side panel that can be displayed by clicking in the 3 dots located at the upper left corner of the interface. This panel allows the user to log into his account, visit the app's forum, or change the app's settings, among other things.

At the upper right corner of the app, there's also a clickable link that says "View Full Scorecard" that will take the user to the website's scorecard.

MyWOT Scorecards

A MyWOT scorecard is a detailed summary of a website that includes its rating, the reviews given by other users, an "about the site" section with a brief excerpt of it, a "Trustworthiness" and "Child Safety" score, and an option called "Claim this site" for site owners who wish to get insights about their websites or to interact with users by commenting their reviews.

MyWOT scorecards are displayed more than 50 million times each month and they go one step further in informing users about important details regarding the website they are visiting.

They provide valuable insights about a website's trustworthiness and this could ultimately assist the visitor in making informed decisions about doing business or signing up for the website's features.

User Comments

User comments are another valuable tool provided by MyWOT, considering that over 200 million reviews are seen by users every month. Through these comments, a user can check what other people are saying about the website and its specific features.

If the visitor has the intention of purchasing something from the website, they may want to read the comments to see how the billing process works or maybe another user has left a remark about the shipping service.

On the other hand, if the user wishes to sign up for a newsletter, someone may have commented about the frequency of the e-mails they get from the site.

Some of these comments may not be in the native language of the user, but a translator can be used to understand what people from other places in the world are saying about the website.

Additionally, the users can also leave their own comments as a contribution to help other people that may visit the site.

Overall User Experience

All things considered, MyWOT is a great tool for those looking to browse through the internet safely as the app includes most (if not all) the features a user needs, displayed on a friendly interface.

Additionally, some of the most popular websites have enough reviews to consider the ratings as a reliable source of information.

The fact that WOT is also available for mobile devices makes it even more convenient, as safe browsing on mobile apps is often taken for granted, even though a significant portion of persons browsing activity is done on their mobile phones.