McAfee SiteAdvisor

The McAfee SiteAdvisor Website showing the review for Wikipedia
Developer(s)	McAfee
Initial release	April 2006
Operating system	Cross-platform
Website	siteadvisor.com archive

McAfee WebAdvisor, previously known as McAfee SiteAdvisor, is a service that reports on the safety of web sites by crawling the web and testing the sites it finds for malware and spam. A browser extension can show these ratings on hyperlinks such as on web search results.^[1]

The service was originally developed by SiteAdvisor, Inc, an MIT startup^[2] first introduced at CodeCon on February 10, 2006,^[3] and later acquired by McAfee^[4] on April 5, 2006.

Prior to mid-October 2014, the functionality of SiteAdvisor could be accessed by submitting a URL to the website at https://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/, but can now also be accessed through a downloadable Browser Plugin.^{[5][citation needed]}

Sites are rated in levels of Safe (green tick), Suspicious (yellow exclamation mark) and Unsafe (red "X").

Additional features include:

• Rates email and IM links
• Indicates sites potentially harmful to your computer
• Allows users to safely shorten URLs when sharing links
• Alerts users to possible phishing and identity theft scams
• Redirects you away from red and yellow sites (if Protected Mode is enabled).^{[citation needed]}

McAfee WebAdvisor is available as a free download on McAfee's website^[1] as well as bundled with McAfee Antivirus Plus, McAfee Internet Security, McAfee Total Protection, McAfee McAfee+ Premium, McAfee+ Advanced, McAfee+ Ultimate, and McAfee Business Protection.

Orther features of McAfee WebAdvisor include:

• Download Protection - This can stop downloads which are considered to be slightly, probably or possibly risky depending on setting determined by the user.
• Protection against accidental clicks
• Blocks malware and phishing websites if you accidentally click on a malicious link.
• Protection against typos - Warns you if you enter a web address incorrectly and points you to the correct one.
• Social Media Protection - color-codes links in your social media feeds to show you which ones are safe.

In March 2006, McAfee launched a JavaScript-based quiz which has users pick between sites rated as safe and unsafe.^[6]

A flash-based memory training game called "WebQuest" was launched around 2007.^[7]

SiteAdvisor has published various reports regarding online threats such as typosquatting, where mistyped domains may lead to sites ranging from harmless pay-per-click and domain parking sites to pornographic and malware sites.^[8]

The very nature of SiteAdvisor and the long periods between site crawls mean that even if the SiteAdvisor tests were 100% accurate a Green rating offers no guarantee of safety. Malicious code and browser exploits often spread fast over large numbers of websites,^[9] meaning a Green rating may not be up to date and may provide a false sense of security.

To resolve this McAfee WebAdvisor now uses McAfee's Smart AI technology^[10] to analyze site content before a website is opened.

McAfee SiteAdvisor now makes use of the TrustedSource website reputation organisation, to act as something like a 'cloud' intelligence software to get the most up-to-date information on websites as possible, very similar to McAfee's Active Protection (Artemis) system.^{[citation needed]} The details of this system are not known.

• Time magazine named SiteAdvisor.com among the 50 coolest websites of 2006.^[11]
• Popular Science awarded SiteAdvisor the "Best of What's New" award in the Computing category for 2006.^[12]
• PC World ranked SiteAdvisor at #15 in "The 100 Best Products of 2007."^[13]

• Norton Safe Web
• Website Reputation Ratings
• WOT: Web of Trust

• Official website
  • Safe report example (Wikipedia)
  • Cautionary report example (whenu.com)
  • Warning report example (sify-antispyware.co.cc)