WOT (Web of Trust) for Internet Explorer

WOT for IE applies the Web of Trust’s user-based ratings systems to Internet Explorer. When you browse to a questionable site, WOT for IE’s toolbar icon changes from green to yellow to red, based on the site’s reputation. That reputation is based on feedback by actual visitors and shared through the Web of Trust, a free, community-based online rating service. It does for Web sites what Angie’s List does for plumbers; sort the trustworthy from the unreliable, the incompetent, and the scammers. WOT’s social features let you read feedback shared by other users and contribute your own experiences. We’ve all blundered across Web sites that turned out to be not quite what was expected (to put it mildly), and this is one way to learn from the mistakes of others. WOT for IE is free, as is the optional WOT account: You don’t need to sign up for anything to take advantage of WOT’s ratings and warnings.

We installed WOT for IE and clicked to allow it in Internet Explorer. WOT’s start page lets you create a new account, which is fast and unintrusive, or sign in to your existing account. WOT for IE’s icon appeared in our browser’s toolbar, colored green to indicate a safe, reliable site. Hovering the cursor displays the site’s rating (Excellent, Fair, Poor) while clicking the icon produces a pop-up with Trustworthiness, Vendor Reliability, Privacy, and Child Safety ratings. We could manage the add-on’s settings from IE’s Tools menu or by right-clicking WOT for IE’s icon as well as open our MyWOT account page and WOT’s other resources. WOT for IE’s options include Parental Controls and the ability to block sites that have poor reputations.

We had no trouble finding sites that tripped WOT for IE’s red alert. Thanks to WOT for IE, we were able to skip those troublesome sites. If you’d like a browser-integrated way to find out about sites before you spend too much time on them or to keep the kids off the dangerous sites, this is a good tool.