Introduction of "SiteAdvisor" No.2
Friday, 10. March 2006, 13:41:57
If you want Japanese edition, click here.
SiteAdvisor is computer software, which show us the safety of accessing site.
It's free.
It works as a IE plug-in and Firefox extenssion. It is not yet released as OPERA plug-in.
However, the publisher(SiteAdvisor) said:
System requirements
Operating Systems
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP (Recommended)
Latest Windows service packs recommended
Mac OS X 10.2.x and later (Firefox extension only)
Web browsers
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 and 1.5 on Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X
Minimum Hardware
400 Mhz processor
128 MB RAM
10 MB free disk space on your hard drive
Internet connection
Download
Internet Explorer
Firefox
How is the safety of the site displayed?
The publisher said:
SiteAdvisor judge the safety of the site based on their test result.
After you install it, you will see the icon at bottom-right of your browser.
Whenever you access any site, SiteAdvisor will tell you the safety of the site by changed color of the icon.
Refer to the figure below.
GREEN = Safe(The site where any issue was not found.)
YELLOW = Caution(The site where some issues were found.)
RED = Warning(The site where serious issues were found.)
GRAY = Untested
When you search with Google, Yahoo! or MSN, SiteAdvisor's safety ratings appear next to search results.
Refer to the figure below.
How to refer to detailed data
(1) Access any site by your browser.
(2) Then, click on the icon in bottom-right of your browser.
(3) You will see the popup-menu.
(4) Click "View site details" in popup-menu.
(5) You will then be presented with a page similar to figure below, which describe the detail of site's safety.
For explanation, I have broken the page of 5 parts, each designated by a different colored box.
(6) Sumarry of each section is as follow:
6-1. Site Report(designated by the red box) : SiteAdvisor's safety ratings appear by the colored icon.
Their test document about the site is displayed on the right.
6-2. E-Mail(designated by the green box) : After entering your e-mail address on this site, the number of the e-mails per month which you receive to is shown.
6-3. Download(designated by the blue box) : This section displays the download file to which malicious software was attached.
SiteAdvisor has tested more than 475,000 to date.
6-4. Online affiliations(designated by the purple box) : This section shows the link of the business partner on this site discovered in the test of SiteAdvisor.
6-5. Annoyances(designated by the light-blue box) : When this site displays pop-up or installs the third-party cookie, those contents are displayed here.
For acquiring more detailed information
In download section, designated by the blue box, click "View detailed analysis".
Then you will be shown detailed page.
Refer to the figure below.
If you would like to know more information about the malware, click the link.
The page which described what this program does your computer is displayed.
Refer to the figure below.
NOTE : SiteAdvisor GREEN icon
What does SiteAdvisor GREEN icon mean ?
It means the safe, but it doesn't mean that it install no unwanted program to your computer.
eg_1) Yahoo.com
Refer to the figure below.
SiteAdvisor has judged yahoo.com to be safe, However it may install some harmless cookies to your computer.
The information of SiteAdvisor is always a domain unit.
Keep this in mind.
eg_2) download.com
Refer to the figure below.
download.com, the most famous download site in the world, has judged to be safe. However a very small percentage of its many downloads contained adware or other unwanted programs.
Conclusion
SiteAdvisor is very useful tool.
if you use IE or Firefox, I strongly recomend to install it.
I expect that OPERA plug-in of SiteAdvisor will be released as early as possible.
SiteAdvisor is computer software, which show us the safety of accessing site.
It's free.
It works as a IE plug-in and Firefox extenssion. It is not yet released as OPERA plug-in.
However, the publisher(SiteAdvisor) said:
SiteAdvisor intends to support all popular browsers. We prioritize new browser support based on the number of users that would benefit from these additions.
We are actively working to add support for more browsers, and we will make announcements when additional browser plug-ins become available.
System requirements
Operating Systems
Windows 98
Windows ME
Windows 2000
Windows XP (Recommended)
Latest Windows service packs recommended
Mac OS X 10.2.x and later (Firefox extension only)
Web browsers
Internet Explorer 5.5
Internet Explorer 6.0
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.7 and 1.5 on Windows XP, Linux and Mac OS X
Minimum Hardware
400 Mhz processor
128 MB RAM
10 MB free disk space on your hard drive
Internet connection
Download
Internet Explorer
Firefox
How is the safety of the site displayed?
The publisher said:
We've come a long way since SiteAdvisor was established nearly one year ago. Our bots have analyzed Web sites representing 95% of Web traffic, downloaded and tested more than 475,000 pieces of software, and provided unique e-mail addresses on more than 1,300,000 registration forms.
SiteAdvisor judge the safety of the site based on their test result.
After you install it, you will see the icon at bottom-right of your browser.
Whenever you access any site, SiteAdvisor will tell you the safety of the site by changed color of the icon.
Refer to the figure below.
GREEN = Safe(The site where any issue was not found.)
YELLOW = Caution(The site where some issues were found.)
RED = Warning(The site where serious issues were found.)
GRAY = Untested
When you search with Google, Yahoo! or MSN, SiteAdvisor's safety ratings appear next to search results.
Refer to the figure below.
How to refer to detailed data
(1) Access any site by your browser.
(2) Then, click on the icon in bottom-right of your browser.
(3) You will see the popup-menu.
(4) Click "View site details" in popup-menu.
(5) You will then be presented with a page similar to figure below, which describe the detail of site's safety.
For explanation, I have broken the page of 5 parts, each designated by a different colored box.
(6) Sumarry of each section is as follow:
6-1. Site Report(designated by the red box) : SiteAdvisor's safety ratings appear by the colored icon.
Their test document about the site is displayed on the right.
6-2. E-Mail(designated by the green box) : After entering your e-mail address on this site, the number of the e-mails per month which you receive to is shown.
6-3. Download(designated by the blue box) : This section displays the download file to which malicious software was attached.
SiteAdvisor has tested more than 475,000 to date.
6-4. Online affiliations(designated by the purple box) : This section shows the link of the business partner on this site discovered in the test of SiteAdvisor.
6-5. Annoyances(designated by the light-blue box) : When this site displays pop-up or installs the third-party cookie, those contents are displayed here.
For acquiring more detailed information
In download section, designated by the blue box, click "View detailed analysis".
Then you will be shown detailed page.
Refer to the figure below.
If you would like to know more information about the malware, click the link.
The page which described what this program does your computer is displayed.
Refer to the figure below.
NOTE : SiteAdvisor GREEN icon
What does SiteAdvisor GREEN icon mean ?
It means the safe, but it doesn't mean that it install no unwanted program to your computer.
eg_1) Yahoo.com
Refer to the figure below.
SiteAdvisor has judged yahoo.com to be safe, However it may install some harmless cookies to your computer.
The information of SiteAdvisor is always a domain unit.
Keep this in mind.
eg_2) download.com
Refer to the figure below.
download.com, the most famous download site in the world, has judged to be safe. However a very small percentage of its many downloads contained adware or other unwanted programs.
Conclusion
SiteAdvisor is very useful tool.
if you use IE or Firefox, I strongly recomend to install it.
I expect that OPERA plug-in of SiteAdvisor will be released as early as possible.
WIDGETIZE