Increase Internet Security With WOT For Internet Explorer

Martin Brinkmann
Jun 20, 2009
Updated • Nov 11, 2011
Internet Explorer
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If you compare the add-ons that are available for Microsoft's Internet Explorer with those available for the Firefox web browser you will soon discover that there are not many Internet Explorer add-ons that one would consider "must-have". It is not really clear why Firefox add-on developer are more productive. Could be that it is easier to produce add-ons for the Internet browser or that the community is more dedicated.

WOT, which stands for Web Of Trust, is an add-on for Microsoft's Internet Explorer that increases the Internet security of the web browser. The main purpose of the add-on is to scan and rank all links in popular search engines and other websites to give the user an indication of the dangers of each listed website.

Each link on supported websites will be ranked with a single colored icon which can be expanded into a detailed view when hovering with the mouse over it. Websites are ranked from very poor to excellent in the four categories trustworthiness, vendor reliability, privacy and child safety.

The Internet Explorer add-on will display a popup if the user clicks on a link with a poor rating which works as a second warning. It is then up to the user to ignore the warning and visit the website, skip the website or check some user reviews on the Web of Trust website first.

Web of Trust should not obviously be the only means of Internet Security but it can be helpful especially for inexperienced users who might get into troubles when visiting unsafe websites. The Internet Explorer add-on is actually not exclusive to Internet Explorer as a version for Firefox is also available for download.

Safe Web Browsing: WOT and How to Use It

Many users are familiar with WOT (Web of Trust) featured for Firefox and Internet Explorer and it certainly has been mentioned in posts. To take full advantage of WOT; you need to know how to use it. This may seem simple to the advanced user, but it is unfamiliar territory to the user who is new to browsing safety. Some anti-malware suites take care of safe web browsing and many do not. If you want to be certain that a website is “safe”, WOT is a great way to do this. “Safe means that the site is clear of malware, spyware, adware, etc. It is hard to tell just by looking if a site is unsafe or safe. This will give you the ability to discern and make appropriate choices accordingly.

WOT in its completely functional format is available for Firefox and Internet Explorer. Safari and Opera versions are available yet they are admittedly incomplete at this time. It may be added to Google Chrome as well. For this demonstration, the focus is on Internet Explorer.
Start by downloading the WOT add-on for Internet Explorer.

web of trust wot

You will then be requested to register to activate all features. This is where you will have to agree to the Terms of Service and License Agreement once again. This may seem odd, but it is the way Licensing Agreements go. Depending on your system and any programs running at the time, this could take a few minutes to complete. After you register, you may see that it is taking a long time to confirm. If this is the case, restart the browser and you will see that WOT has been installed on Internet Explorer. IE9 is used in this example.

You will see this circular icon in the upper right corner of the IE browser. This is WOT. When you go to a website, click on this to see the ratings. For example, here the user navigated to desktopnexus.com. This is a free site for desktop backgrounds. The ratings indicated that it is safe.

This confirms general user reports that this site is reliable and safe: free of malware and thus trustworthy. Now we can take a look at another random site and see its ratings. Please note that this is purely demonstrative and not intended to incriminate any site or confirm that it is a dangerous site. This is merely to show the functions of WOT in Internet Explorer.

wot

The author will go as far as to state that this is a free music download site that is at the top of Google’s search. Immediately, this warning came up. Upon further examination with certain anti-malware software, several threats were identified. You can click the View rating details and comments button to see the ratings:

When you see this, navigate away from the site and find a more trusted site. WOT works without instigation. Generally, if you do not see a “WARNING” pop up, the site is safe. Click the circular WOT icon shown earlier to see the ratings of any given site to be sure. Enjoy safe browsing and avoid problems that could compromise the safety of your computer.

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Comments

  1. subgrampus said on July 18, 2010 at 5:13 pm
    Reply

    Update on WOT…Current version 20100303 (32-bit only) works on Windows 2003, Windows XP, Windows Vista, and Windows 7, with Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or newer (8.0 recommended).

  2. FMG said on June 20, 2009 at 2:57 pm
    Reply
  3. subgrampus said on June 20, 2009 at 2:05 pm
    Reply

    Web Trust is applicable to / works with Internet Explorer 8 only.

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