Privacy, Security & Virus Information
Are Norton Safe Web's results accurate?
Users can trust McAfee SiteAdvisor results
Which Would you Trust?
McAfee Site Advisor provides safer results when compared with Norton Safe Web
McAfee Site Advisor provides superior protection when compared with Norton Safe Web in three key areas. These areas are - Search Result Ratings, Sponsored Search Result Ratings, and Administrator/Parent Password Protection.
Here are a few of the most popular features that users like best about McAfee SiteAdvisor:
- On-site warnings and security checks
- Search engine safety ratings
- Email security link advisor
- Password protection safety mode
Search Result Ratings
In a simple test, Norton Safe Web's Safe Search Ratings were compared with those from McAfee Site Advisor. Three searches were conducted for search terms that are frequently associated with risky sites: Free Screensavers, Free Downloads, and Warez.
At the completion of these tests, it was found that Norton Safe Web returned green (safe) results for at least eight sites, which McAfee Site Advisor ranked as dangerous.
Although Norton Safe Web does use a similar ranking system to that developed by McAfee Site Advisor (the red, yellow, green dot system), the efficacy of this system actually relies on the software's ability to detect threats.
In fact, a user relying on Norton Safe Web may actually be at greater risk than a user without any protection at all. This is because a user without any protection will rely on their own judgement to assess the risk level of a site, whereas a user trusting Norton Safe Web may visit a SAFE site that is actually very dangerous.
Sponsored Search Results
A sponsored search result is a search result that is presented at the top and right-hand side of the search engine. These positions are sold to websites and are not based on the search engines relevancy ranking.
Sponsored Search Results carry as much, if not a greater risk, as those in the natural listings. For this reason, McAfee SiteAdvisor felt that sponsored search results must be safety rated in the same manner as all other search results. Norton Safe Web does not agree.
Unlike McAfee SiteAdvisor, Norton Safe Web does not rank sponsored search results, leaving the user at risk to the threats that these sites may present.
Administrator/Parent Control
When you are in charge of a computer network, as a parent in a household or an administrator, you want to know that every computer user is respecting the network's safety. Unfortunately, you cannot always watch over people's shoulders as they use the internet.
That is why McAfee Site Advisor Plus allows your network to operate in protected mode, where an administrator/parent password is required before sites that are marked dangerous can be accessed.
Norton Safe Web does not offer a password-protected feature. Instead, when a site is labelled dangerous the user must simply click "continue" before visiting the site. Does your child understand the risks enough to make this decision for themselves?
When compared with Norton Safe Web, McAfee SiteAdvisor and SiteAdvisor Plus offer superior protection for website users and their computers.
You can download McAfee SiteAdvisor FREE software now
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