Beyond the basics, SiteAdvisor's best feature is its ability to rate your Google, Yahoo, and MSN search results before you even start clicking. On each page of search results, SiteAdvisor places a color-coded check mark beside each return, telling you in advance whether that result has a safe or unsafe reading. This feature in particular fulfills SiteAdvisor's promise to prevent users from landing on questionable sites.
SiteAdvisor's feedback can be voluminous, for those who feel like digging deep. Click the button for details, for example, and ask to see email details. You'll get a thorough procedural rundown: How many emails were received after signing up, how often they arrived, and even a graphic display showing the appearance of those messages in a typical inbox.
If SiteAdvisor has a shortcoming, it is only that the makers have not yet tested every site out there. But then again, it's a big Web we live in. And while it's true that sites can change, meaning a green yesterday may not be a green tomorrow, SiteAdvisor claims to retest often. And users can be certain of one thing, at least: Red sites do mean trouble.
There is some good news here for Web browsers in general. SiteAdvisor reports that in its extensive studies, only 5 percent of sites have come up red and 2 percent have come up yellow. Sites with screensavers, free games, and contests tend to be the most problematic.
The downside? Users unknowingly click on an estimated 175 million "red" sites each month in search engine results alone, according to SiteAdvisor. Which may be why a piece of prophylactic programming like SiteAdvisor could do a lot of users a world of good.
Pros: Rates Web sites for safety before you visit, plug-ins for both Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox available, freeware app
Cons: Not all Web sites are rated -- newer unrated sites could pose risks
