Entered CNET Catalog: 03/13/2006
SKU: CNETSITEADVISOR
Manufacturer: SiteAdvisor Inc.
Manufacturer description
SiteAdvisor is a downloadable tool that works with Internet Explorer to help you Stay safe while you browse and stay safe while you search.Product summary
The good: SiteAdvisor is free; works with Internet Explorer and Firefox.
The bad: SiteAdvisor delivered inconsistent testing results; doesn't work with Opera; doesn't work if paid version is running on IE; constantly reminds us that there's a paid version; isn't very configurable; relies entirely on white lists.
The bottom line: SiteAdvisor is one of the first secure browsing tools to go mainstream, however, since its acquisition by McAfee, the product delivers uneven test results and therefore can't be recommended over the free Netcraft toolbar.
Editors' review
- Editors' Rating: 6.0
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 02/16/2007
SiteAdvisor began as a standalone company, and was purchased in early 2006 by veteran security vendor McAfee. Bundled within McAfee Internet Security Suite 2007, SiteAdvisor is also available as a free download for Firefox and Internet Explorer, and as a paid service, SiteAdvisor Plus, for $20 ($40 for three users) and available for Internet Explorer only. Using an algorithm that weighs a number of different criteria, from the number of spam e-mails generated after registering with the site, the number of downloads associated with the site, and, finally, the ratings of various links embedded within the site, SiteAdvisor makes a determination as to whether a site is safe to visit. As you search or visit a Web site, SiteAdvisor queries its database and returns its results as colored icons on a search page, a colored button on your browser, or blocked Web site access. In theory, this is an effective means to warn users regarding bogus sites; however, SiteAdvisor sometimes gave legitimate sites that have been defaced by cross-site scripting attacks clean bills of health; perhaps they were fine when SiteAdvisor first evaluated them, but these sites have since taken on hacker-introduced malware. On the other hand, SiteAdvisor consistently and accurately warned us appropriately for each of the test phishing sites we chose.
We downloaded and installed SiteAdvisor from the McAfee site onto a Firefox browser. We had some minor trouble. For example, if you have Firefox running the free SiteAdvisor on the same machine as Internet Explorer running the paid SiteAdvisor Plus, we found the free version gave inconsistent results. The fact that two editions of SiteAdvisor can't co-exist on the same machine struck us as odd. We also found that if you use the native browser within AOL or other branded browsers supplied by subscription services, you will need to open a separate instance of Internet Explorer to see the SiteAdvisor ratings. Other than that, we found SiteAdvisor played well with other antiphishing tools tested, including Linkscanner Pro, the Netcraft toolbar, and the native antiphishing tools within Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. SiteAdvisor does not work with Opera. Because SiteAdvisor blocks access to a suspicious site, it often competed with Internet Explorer 7's own antiphishing protection, which is notoriously slow. In order to compare results we had to disable SiteAdvisor to let IE7 process a page.
SiteAdvisor has no configuration options, which can be frustrating to more advanced users. Should you ever want to remove SiteAdvisor, we found the uninstall process quick and clean. After restarting each test browser, we found all traces of SiteAdvisor were removed.
Unlike the Netcraft toolbar, which only detects suspected phishing sites as you access them, SiteAdvisor and Linkscanner Pro both display their safety ratings over your current Google or Yahoo search result page. SiteAdvisor does not work with Microsoft Live.com results. But the heuristics within SiteAdvisor appeared to be off during our tests, a fact confirmed by McAfee. Thus, sites previously rated as clean that have since been defaced still came up clean.
One defaced Web site, a Massachusetts-based restaurant Web site, is infected with a malicious Trojan. By viewing the source code of the page, we can see the hacker-added iframe script at the very bottom; in this case the code calls out to a site in Korea known to host malicious code. SiteAdvisor rated the restaurant's site as green, or clean. Another example is a sex site hosted in a foreign country; it hosts (either deliberately or not) a malicious WMF file. With SiteAdvisor (both the paid and free editions) we were able to access both sites, and we were also prompted as to whether we wanted to install the tainted WMF file. Neither the Netcraft toolbar nor the antiphishing protection within Firefox 2 or Internet Explorer 7 blocked our access to these two sites. Only Linkscanner Pro flagged it, allowing us access to the site after it had stripped out the malicious content.
But Linkscanner Pro failed to identify most of the suspected phishing sites we visited, and here's where the premium SiteAdvisor Plus truly shines. Using 10 sites recently reported to a reputable, independent phish-tracking site, we found that the premium SiteAdvisor Plus identified and blocked access to all 10 sites, tied with the free Netcraft toolbar; next best tools were Linkscanner Pro and Firefox 2, each identifying or blocking access to 7 suspected phishing sites; they were followed by Internet Explorer 7 with an abysmal 5, or half the sites visited. The free edition of McAfee SiteAdvisor gave us inconsistent results over the five days we tested it, so it was not ranked. In general, we found that IE 7 (at the bottom of our results pile) consistently failed to catch phishing sites less than one hour old, although IE 7 caught all phishing sites known for at least one hour or more. Most phishing sites are removed after their initial 72 hours.
McAfee doesn't include a tutorial for using SiteAdvisor Plus. What McAfee does provide is a contextual knowledge base, asking you a series of questions. There is also an FAQ on the SiteAdvisor site, although it could be much more thorough. Should the knowledge base or FAQ fail to answer your question, you're taken to another window where a remote scan will attempt to diagnose what is wrong. If none of these solutions work, you're given more options, including online chat, user forums, and e-mail.
SiteAdvisor, since its acquisition by McAfee, delivers uneven test results and therefore can't be recommended over the free Netcraft toolbar. SiteAdvisor lacks configuration options, doesn't work with Opera, doesn't work with branded browsers from AOL and other services, and this free version installed on Firefox appears to conflict if the paid version is installed on Internet Explorer. Overall, we experienced greater flexibility and fewer hassles when using the free Netcraft toolbar, and we also liked the proactive nature of Linkscanner Pro better.
User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24out of 24 user reviews
Destroys the reputation of legitimate websites
Pros: Does identify problems with websites, but it also labels good sites as dangerous
Cons: Once a site is labeled dangerous (legitimately or not) it can take up to a year to get the label removed after correcting the problem
out of 24 user reviews
Extremely rogue application!!
Pros: None to list.
Cons: *False positives
* Pops up fake error messages forcing the user to hardcrash even a brand-new PC.
* No customer Service whatsoever.
* Persistanly nags the user to purchase the full version of the terrible product.
* Too many more to list.
I am very suprised that a legitimate company would distribute & illegally sell an application that downloaded a total of 15 new trojan horses that it was supposed to protect me from. It should fall under the category of "Rogue Software" like all the other fake-antivirus applications: Spysheriff, AdwareSheriff, WinFixer, Brave Sentry, MacSweeper, and all that other malicious crap!!
Updated on Feb 15, 2009UPDATE: I HAVE DONE SOME THINKING & HAVE CONCLUDED THAT THIS IS OBVIOUSLY A TERRIBLE APPLICATION! A WAS ALSO SPAMMED & TARGETED BY 2 IDIOTS USING YMAIL & GMAIL ACCOUNTS ATTEMPTING TO DEFRAUD A GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATION!! McAfee also never replied to my freaking Email! NEGATIVE 5 STARS!
out of 24 user reviews
Used to be good - now it's becoming bloatware
Pros: SiteAdvisor used to be an excellent tool to aid you in safe surfing. You could tell easily whether a site had malware, and you could do it right from the google search page. It was well-designed and worked flawlessly.
Cons: McAfee, true to form, is turning it into bloatware. They've added a search toolbar and other 'features' that you don't want and didn't ask for.
out of 24 user reviews
Average tool which greenlights odd sites
Pros: It's free and sometimes blocks access to websites laden with Spyware or viruses
Cons: It greenlights some odd sites that contain porno on the home page and some sites full of pop ops. Also it will greenlight a site but when you click into it, it blocks you going any further because there are viruses or spyware found.
I am concerned that siteadvisor greenlights a couple of sites that have numerous pop ups and porno. I emailed Mcafee today about one particular site which shows American TV programmes like 'Terminator The Sarah Connors Chronicles' but when i clicked on to the site (which was green ticked by Mcafee) there was porno on the home page. I would have been real angry if my son had clicked on there. Mcafee's response was, they don't check for content as in pornography but they test sites for spyware, viruses, trojans and malware and excessive pop ups.
Another big problem with my siteadvisor is sometimes it goes crazy and shows legitimate sites like google or the BBC as grey or red, its obviously not working properly so when i phoned mcafee (which has the worst customer services, not because they're rude but because they are pretty clueless) they said uninstall siteadvisor and reinstall it again, i have done this twice in 4 weeks.
Use with caution. My son goes on this gaming website and its green ticked on our computer but on his friends computer mcafee has red ticked it.
out of 24 user reviews
Nice idea, flawed execution
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Unreliable ratings malign good sites
Other sites have been rated for spamming because SA's robots are too dumb to set the options for opting out of email when subscribing, or because they didn't realise they had subscribed to an internet mailing list. Some human quality control over the test results might avoid such issues - but of course that would eat into McAfee's profits from the product.
SiteAdvisor is nothing but scareware, software that exploits users' online fears to make a profit for the developer.
out of 24 user reviews
Site Advisor Run Amuck
Pros: Nice concept
Cons: False positives, horrible customer service
If it were a perfect world, this would be a wonderful concept. But in this world, Site Advisor appears to be so badly mis-managed by McAfee that their product and its ratings have become irrelevant. It would be one thing if they got a site rating wrong and fixed it, but McAfee is so unresponsive to ratings complaints that the volume of false positives and false negatives has become unsurmountable, again rendering their ratings irrelevant.
Their customer service is so inconsistent in its responsiveness and the advice it gives that one simply shakes their head in disbelief. What in the world is going on at McAfee?
It's too bad.
out of 24 user reviews
Started out good, but proved to be a wolf in sheep's clothing.
Pros: I was pleased the first 2 days
Cons: It required me to agree to allowing my browsing information to be sent to McAfee or it would un-install
It seemed to work well again, but the next day I had a pop-up that required me to agree to the program sending info about my browsing habits to McAfee or it would un-install immediately.
Since having a resident spy program in a supposed "safety feature" seemed counter-productive, I chose to let it un-install. What it actually did though, was delete the uninstall from the Add-Remove in the Control Panel and highjacked me from the page I was viewing to it's website for a long survey.
I'm having to work at getting it off the computer & had to use Unlocker to get each of the individual pieces of the program I could locate off the computer.
Even after all that, it attempted to highjack my browser to it's website, but I was off-line. I'll need to do a registry search to get more of it off.
Are these McAfee's true colors coming forward in this program?????
It seems kind of sick to try to pass this off as a "safety feature".
out of 24 user reviews
Seems to work just fine in Firefox
Pros: Easy to use - useful advice & free
Cons: Nothing major , McAfee site list validity and content may not be updated often enough
No doubt there will be some false negatives and the site list maintained by McAfee cannot possibly be totally comprehensive but overall , definitely a worthwhile addition to your system
out of 24 user reviews
A good tool to prevent access to dangerous sites
Pros: Easy to use, free
Cons: Doesn't block dangerous websites
out of 24 user reviews
Spectacular Toolbar
Pros: Overlays search enginges and shows what is good and bad
Cons: Not every single website has been tested
CONS:Limited phishing protection.Not every single website has been tested.Some false-positives on websites.Some times Siteadvsior is wrong so check what the users say.
CONCLUSION:Sitadvisor is a must have toolbar to avoid bad websites.It doesn't get in your way or slow the browser and in you think Siteadvsior is wrong about a website then you can write your opinion and they sometimes change the rating.I also recommend using WOT(Firefox only) along side with Sitadvisor.
out of 24 user reviews
The Most Dangerous Software On The Internet
Pros: It Will Go Away
Cons: Inferior, Volunteer Force With Agenda, Inconsistent Results
This is a moronic approach to security. It basically let's a few people, most with dubious agendas, to trash their competition, censor content that they don't agree with, and trash software that competes with McAfee. Read the post, this volunteer force can't make up it's mind whether a site is safe or not, but that doesn't stop the site from going red.
Looking down the road, I see an internet with giant holes in it. The content you see, will be what a few people have determined that is appropriate for you to see. After all, Mcafee already screens for viruses, adware, malware real time, what is the need for Site Advisor. It is big brother and big business. If you want to save the internet, boycott all of McAfee's products.
out of 24 user reviews
Excellent add-on for firefox
Pros: This is an excellent add-on for firefox and IE and is a must have for any internet users. More over SiteAdivsor plus comes along with McAfee ISS 2007 and offers protection features. McAfee rules!
Cons: None I have seen so far
out of 24 user reviews
Questionable policies and ratings
Pros: Free; browser plug-in available
Cons: No clearly defined method to locate or remove erroneous listings
Because of the history of false negative reports and because of the fact that McAfee seems to have singled out competitors for false "red" listings, I can not in good conscience recommend this service.
out of 24 user reviews
Not bad...but not that great
Pros: Well..for one it's free
Cons: Their color ratings aren't all that accurate
out of 24 user reviews
A must for Firefox users
Pros: Doesn't need screen real-estate in your browser
Cons: None that I can think of
out of 24 user reviews
It's quite good but....
Pros: It warns you that you maybe visiting a website that is dangerous. So it's quite good. It is better that you check the site before you visit it because.......( See Cons )
Cons: if you visit the site then check the report for it. Your computer could already be infected.
out of 24 user reviews
Excellent Tool Bar
Pros: Free.Checks websites and search engines for good and bad sites.
Cons: Could stop asking users to upgrade to Siteadvisor Plus.
out of 24 user reviews
This is the most useful safe surfing tool that I have ever seen.
Pros: It is very user-friendly and the reports of the websites that it provided are very clear , exact and detailed.
Cons: Some of the websites have not been checked by McAfee , but I think that McAfee would check those websites very soon after they have been reported.
out of 24 user reviews
A Computer Saver. . .
Pros: Tells you the sites rating (green, yellow, red) while you search, and alerts you on a bad site.
Cons: Does not block you from going to bad sites. This is especially bad on Browser Exploits, which mess up your computer no matter what, the second you go to the site.
out of 24 user reviews
Just set up to scare people into buying their product
Pros: Easy to use
Cons: Isn't always correct, can be impossible to uninstall
Of course, it is in their interest to blacklist lots of sites, after all, they are trying to sell a product by fear.
But remember, if they can mark a good site as bad, they can just as easily mark a bad site as good.
They are in it for the money, and don't care who they stand on.
out of 24 user reviews
Awesome Program
Pros: Saves you from spy/virus sites
Cons: None that I have found
out of 24 user reviews
SiteAdvisor is a unique browser safety plug-in that quickly INFORMS you about the sites you visit
Pros: SA checks download safety, spam generation, popups and malicious activity of an expanding universe of sites. It's FREE!
Cons: Currently limited to IE and Firefox, otherwise nothing negative.
I've used SA (SiteAdvisor) for a few months. It's not intrusive, does not "load down" your machine, but really does help tell good sites from bad. It's not a "program" like antivirus or antispyware, fighting a small set of known threats, but a browser plug-in that pro-actively warn you about problem sites. It helps avoid problems, rather than just deal with consequences, making it a good addition to layered security.
It's a well designed system. SA presents a high level status indicator on your browser about site safety, with quick access to details if you want them. Their web database is constantly updated. When you browse the web or do a search, SiteAdvisor consults it's huge online database. It returns a color coded icon immediately with almost no lag, or load on your machine. You can quickly learn more from detailed information linked via the SA icon or add your own comment.
Like Google, SA has web spiders searching for new sites. They run an automated analysis of the site based on common exploits, pop-up action, a clever link analysis and they measure how much SPAM is generated after a visit. If downloads are available, they test each one on a clean machine for malicious content. Details go into a full site reference. In addition, every SA user can review or comment on issues, which can affect the rating.
Since the web is big, still growing and always changing, there is never going to be a complete index, even with the fastest web crawlers. If an SA user visits an unrated site, it is added to a queue for testing, which helps expand the universe. Commonly seen sites will already be in the database for most users. The more users, the better the data.
Maybe it's strongest feature is the search assist icons that work with Google, Yahoo and MSN. When looking for a site, you get a quick snapshot of safe ratings BEFORE you click through to them.
You really have to see SiteAdvisor for yourself. It takes under 5 minutes to get. Try it. If you don't agree it adds to your web safety, you can remove it in under 60 seconds. I don't know anyone who has not liked it.
I forgot to mention, the cNet review only gave a 6 for user support because no phone number was given.
1. This is a free product. Free phone support is asking too much.
2. You don't need much support because the product is "transparent" in use. The demo on the SiteAdvisor page pretty much tells all there is to the use. Installation and removal is also explained, but it is trivial.
Any one with more questions will find pages of comments, FAQs, operational descriptions ...
3. One of the SA icon options links to HELP, another is "Feedback". Everytime I've sent a feedback response that needed a reply, I've gotten one within hours.
I'd rate the user support as pretty good and far better than many other products, paid or not.
SiteAdvisor was formed in 1st quarter 2005 and has had a "pre-release" version available in 4th quarter 2005. This morning, security product vendor McAfee announced they have aquired SiteAdvisor.
The free SiteAdvisor plug-in will continue as is, but McAfee will bundle it with their security suite and provide enhanced features.
See:
http://blog.siteadvisor.com/mt/mt-tb.cgi/44
and
http://www.mcafee.com/us/about/press/consumer/2006/20060403_050000_q.html
out of 24 user reviews
Siteadivor is a must-have program whenever you use the internet.
Pros: Critically informative - guarantees your safety by warning you in advance about websites behavior regarding spam, adware, malware, drive-by downloads, etc. Thorough details for each site is given.
Cons: It is virtually impossible to test every web site - but they are trying like the wind to review as many as is humanly possible!
out of 24 user reviews
Saved me a few times
Pros: Gives clear & understandable warnings.
Cons: Not all sites are tested.
