WOT (Web of Trust) – assessment of the reputation and security of sites
The WOT (Web of Trust) extension shows the level of user trust in sites on the Internet, warns the user about the possible presence of a potential danger on specific sites.
The WOT browser add-on, using special color icons in search results, warns the Internet user about potentially unsafe sites. The rating of sites is formed on the basis of user reviews about sites on the Internet, members of the WOT community.
The extension is designed for all leading browsers: Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera, Internet Explorer, Safari. Supported in other browsers based on Chrome and Firefox, such as Yandex Browser, Amigo, etc.
Assessing the reputation of sites on the Internet
Sites are rated by users of the WOT community around the world, based on ratings given to the site by previous visitors, updated site ratings, and includes lists of phishing sites. In addition to user ratings, information about sites obtained from reliable sources and organizations involved in Internet security issues is taken into account.
The main criteria for ranking sites are: trust, reliability of the seller, confidentiality, safety for children.
The WOT service was first launched in 2007 in Finland. Since then, the “Trust on the Net (on the Internet)” community (translated into Russian) has spread throughout the world. The Web of Trust community supports 11 languages, including Russian.
WOT uses four criteria to rate a site’s trustworthiness: “Trust”, “Seller’s Trustworthiness”, “Confidentiality”, “Children’s Safety”. Ratings show the general level of trust of visitors to a particular site.
An indication that warns the user about the trust in a particular site or link works like a traffic light. Primary colors: red, yellow or green, indicate the reputation of the website:
- green signal – the site is trustworthy, reliable;
- yellow signal – caution should be exercised when visiting the site;
- red signal – potentially dangerous site.
Thus, with the help of Web of Trust, the user receives additional information about the degree of reliability of resources on the Internet, based on the reviews of website visitors.
For all the time, the WOT add-on has been downloaded by users in different browsers tens of millions of times.
WOT extension
To install the WOT extension in your browser, go to the browser’s add-on store.
Find the extension, click on the “Install” (“Add”, etc.) button, and after installation in the browser, the community page on the Internet will open.
After that, the extension setup begins. In the “WOT” window, in the “Introduction” tab, they offer to select the appropriate level of protection.
There are three levels of protection available:
- Standard (recommended) – Display site ratings in search results.
- Light – site ratings are not displayed.
- Parental control – blocking access to sites that are dangerous for children.
Select the level of protection, click on the “Continue” button.
In the next window, you can register to access the social features of the WOT add-on. It is not necessary to do this at all, at your discretion.
By registering, the user becomes a member of the Web of Trust community. After that, he can rate sites, write reviews.
An unregistered user can use site reputation data without being able to participate in compiling trust scores.
WOT extension installation is complete.
Enter the extension settings by clicking on the “Settings” button. Here you can change the initial settings of the extension and the protection level.
After entering a query into the search engine, you will see site reputation icons that will be displayed opposite the page name in the search engine results.
The corresponding reputation of a particular site corresponds to its own color identification:
- Dark green – Excellent.
- Light green – Good.
- Yellow – Unsatisfactory.
- Light red – Bad.
- Dark red – Very bad.
- If the icon has no color – No data.
The WOT extension is optimally configured by default.
This is how it looks in practice, in the results of the Google search engine (in the Yandex search engine, the reputation of sites looks similar).
The reputation icon for a specific site will be visible next to the navigation bar in the browser, next to links in social networks, in mail services.
When using the WOT extension, please note the following:
- If a site has a bad rating, this does not mean that this site cannot be visited. Ratings are set by the users themselves and therefore errors are possible. Therefore, it may happen that a completely harmless site may have a suspicious reputation.
In general, WOT ratings accurately reflect the reputation of sites on the Internet, so using this extension, the user will be careful to know in advance the reputation of the site he visits. As they say, forewarned is forearmed.
WOT’s partner is the Adguard program , which blocks ads on web pages. Thanks to this program, you will get rid of any ads in your browser, which will no longer interfere with you when browsing the pages of sites.
Checking sites on the service
In addition to the extension, you can use an online service to check website URLs.
Do the following:
- Go to the service page: https://www.mywot.com/website-safety-check .
- Enter the URL or IP address of the web page in the field, click on the “Check Site Safely” button.
- Get the result on the WOT scale after checking the resource.
Article Conclusions
The WOT extension, after installation in the browser, displays the site’s rating in the search results, according to the degree of its security and user trust. The rating of sites on the Web of Trust service is formed based on the results of feedback from Internet users and community members.
