McAfee's Site Advisor Revisited

I have written about McAfee's SiteAdvisor in the past here in this blog. If you don't remember what it is, let me remind you. SiteAdvisor is a free software add-on for either Internet Explorer or Firefox. Its job is to advise you whether of not a particular Website is safe before you click on a link on a search page to go to it. When you do a search using Google, Yahoo or MSN, a green, yellow, or red check mark shows up next to each result on your search. This tells you whether or not a website is safe to visit, as rated by McAfee and their reviewers.

Why am I writing about it again? Because I spend a lot of time browsing the web, much of it researching and checking information for this blog. And I have been surprised at the number of Websites that show up as being possibly dangerous. During my searches, I've run across many Websites that appear to be safe and seemingly have the answers I am looking for, only to be marked as hazardous to my computing health. (To be fair, there are far more safe sites listed than dangerous ones.)

This being the case, I must rate this tiny piece of software as a must for any computer that accesses the Internet...and as you are reading this on the Web or via e-mail, that means YOU! As I said, it is free, small in size, and easy to install. Currently, there are two versions available, one for Firefox and one for Internet Explorer.

If you want to read more about it, you can head over to the special Website that McAfee has set up for this program. To download the Firefox version, head over to this page. For Internet Explorer, you need to visit this page.

While you are improving your Web searching and browsing experience, you also might want to look at another free program that works with Google search pages. It is called "GooglePreview." Again, there is a version for both Internet Explorer and Firefox. This little add-on gives you a thumbnail preview of a site next to its listing on the Google search page. It is not a "must" like SiteAdvisor, but it does enhance your searching experience.

To download the Firefox version, go to this page. For IE version, go to this page.