SiteAdvisor

I have been busy updating and cleaning up our free paper toys directory and wanted to mention a great plug-in that I use for everyday browsing the Web and checking links. It is called McAfee SiteAdvisor. What it does is rate sites. They have 3 ratings. Green: safe. Yellow: some issues, like spam, etc. Red: spyware/adware etc found in downloads or in scripts on the site. There's also gray which means the site has not been checked, which if you "View site details" it will automatically be entered into the queue to be rated.

One thing that may be a bit confusing is once you have the plug-in installed and click on the Siteadvisor bar at the bottom of your browser and click "View site details" you will see a screen that says: "Upgrade to SiteAdvisor Plus" you do not have to sign up and pay for this, just click the "No Thanks. Continue to site report".

One of the nice things about this plug-in is you see the ratings before you enter sites in Google, Yahoo etc. You may still choose to enter the red or yellow site but at least you are warned.

There is a version that you pay for, but there is also a free version as well. I use the free Firefox plug-in version.