is Web of Trust better than IE8's SmartScreen filter?

[BobLewiston]

Is WOT's list of bad websites better than Microsoft's?

And does WOT enable you to download their list (like an anit-virus program lets you download a list of virus definitions)? Because that's not what SmartScreen does. It sends the URLs to Microsoft to check, which sounds like an invasion of privacy to me.

[Blaze]

In my opinion WOT is better, since it is a plugin for Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox & Google Chrome.

I doubt you can download the definition list since you can just search on the WOT website and check whether's a website to be found malicious or not.

Protect yourself from online scams, sites with adult content, spam and other Internet threats.

The WOT community has rated millions of websites so you can search, shop online and surf for fun without worrying.

Hope this helps .

[chimpy]

WOT is user maintained so as far as I know the only way of seeing what is and is not a bad site is to google the site with the plug in installed and then click on the rating and read the reviews, which is what I do.

You also adjust the setting to what ever you feel is right for you, for instance I have it to block all sites that do not have a green in all WOTs categorys, so it blocks them outright. Then if I choose to I can disable that and proceed which I do for some sites that I know are fine but do not as yet have a rating.

[goldhound]

I would not entirely trust WOT, just use it as a guide. One does not have to stretch their imagination to assume several peeps involved in a malicious set of websites joining WOT and rating their own site. Not to mention those who like to play pranks.

I find that my real time MBAM and No Script are safer than hoping a rating is legit.

People who know nothing about the net will rate a site good just because they liked it not because they even knew how to check it.

[Amethyst]

I don't use IE very much on my XP Pro computers, so I didn't even notice the SmartScreen filter until today. (And it was my Dad reporting problems with his IE browser, his finding that disabling his AVG free Linkscanner appeared to solve the problem, and then him asking if he could do without the Linkscanner that got me looking at IE's security. )

I had my son install WOT on his IE8, and I'm pretty sure he's already got the SmartScreen filter. He hasn't reported any issues. I haven't really used IE much, but I haven't noticed anything untoward from having both on IE at the same time. (I found IE slower to load than Firefox anyway even BEFORE I added WOT. LOL!)

To make a long story short, there are 3 computers in this house using both on IE and not seeing any issues, so I wondered if anyone else had.

(I'm just now wondering if SmartScreen filter is better than AVG's Linkscanner, also if I should get my Dad to try disabling the SmartScreen filter and re-enabling the AVG Linkscanner to see how that goes. And if it comes to a choice, which one he should go with. Personally, I would go with the SmartScreen AND WOT, provided there are no known issues. )

[memoemc2]

Gooday mate:

Who do you trust more:

a) Everybody around the world.

A big conglomerate?

...make your choice (Saw style)

[DarkSnakeKobra]

Wot seems to be much better. For me smart screen comes up on very rare occasions. Plus the fact that if you google wot shows up in the results and gives the rating. Green is safe-yellow is mediocre and red is dangerous.

[DGMurdockIII]

there is some people that say WOT is not very reliable