When you conduct a search on Google or some other search engine, you get results for several websites and web pages. However, one cannot be sure whether these search results point to secure websites or to some suspicious sites that may contain viruses, spyware, malware, phishing sites, etc. It is only after visiting a site by clicking on its link in the search results that one may (or may not) come to know about the site being a harmful site, and sometimes the browser may advise you not to visit that site if it contains some risky material such as viruses etc. McAfee SiteAdvisor is a free program, that can be installed on your computer like a plugin, which can advise you in advance about the security of the links shown in the search results. This advance advice is incorporated for each link displayed in the search results. [Also see: McAfee Site Advisor if a website is safe to visit.]
McAfee SiteAdvisor program gets installed as an add-on, browser extension, or plugin, in all major browsers installed on your computer. For example, when I installed on my computer, it automatically got installed as add-on etc. for all three browsers installed on my computer, namely, Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Internet Explorer. [Also see: Check with StopBadware if a website has malicious content.]
Moreover, McAfee SiteAdvisor shows its security recommendations for links shown in the search results from all major search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo!, Ask, AOL, Baidu, and several others. Following rating icons are shown by McAfee SiteAdvisor for the links in the search results:
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Rating icons used by McAfee SiteAdvisor for indicating security of web links
For example, have a look at the search results from Google Search in Chrome browser, wherein McAfee SiteAdvisor has added its security recommendations in the form of its rating icons for links displayed:
Clik here to view.
Security recommendations shown for links in search results by McAfee SiteAdvisor
You may notice that for one particular website link in the search results, McAfee SiteAdvisor shows security threat. When you hover your mouse on this icon showing “security threat”, McAfee shows further details as under:
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Detailed report shown by McAfee SiteAdvisor about security threat of a link
So, it shows that there are potential security risks with that site. You can click the “Read site report” link to read further details on such site about the kind of security threat posed.
In this way, you can know in advance as to whether there are any security threats in visiting the links displayed in the search results. It helps you to avoid visiting such suspicious / harmful websites. [Also see: Free online virus & malware scan from BitDefender.]
In addition, whenever you visit a website, McAfee SiteAdvisor icon in the address bar (e.g., in Chrome browser) shows whether that site is safe by displaying green color icon for a safe site, and a red color icon for a potentially unsafe site. You can click this icon to read detailed security report about that site.
Further, in Internet Explorer browser, the McAfee SiteAdvisor plugin also displays the following Secure Search box for conducting secure searches:
Clik here to view.
Secure Search box displayed by McAfee SiteAdvisor in Internet Explorer
It may be mentioned that when you install McAfee SiteAdvisor, it prompts you to accept Yahoo! Search as your default search engine. So, be careful to select options when you install it, in case you don’t want that to happen. For example, I won’t like to change Google Search as my default search engine.
This plugin also offers you certain options that you can explore and select as required by you. [Also see: Check websites for viruses, malware & reputation with URLVoid.]
Download: You can download McAfee SiteAdvisor from its official site. The download size is about 7 MB. When you install this program, it will automatically install for all major browsers installed on your computer. It is available for Windows computer, as also for Mac computers and for Android phones.