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New Firefox Extension Makes Surfing Safer
I recently had an email from Yotam Elal, the developer of the well known Firefox FoxLingo extension, to let me know about his latest product, LinkExtend.
LinkExtend is a free Firefox extension that adds a special search toolbar to your browser. With LinkExtend installed, all your search results (whether done through the LinkExtend toolbar or not) are annotated with a wealth of information about each site listed including:
- Safety - Informs you if a web page is malicious, sends spam, contains spyware, online scams, identity theft, and more
- KidSafe - Alerts you about sites that are unsafe for children and let's you erase these sites from your Firefox history automatically
- Ethics - Rates ethical behavior of a site's company including social responsibility, business practices, environmental impact, etc.
- PageRank - Represents how important a page is on the web, based on the Google link analysis algorithm, ranked from zero to ten
- SiteTraffic - Shows you how popular a site is, based on the average page views and users for a particular site or web page
- Visited - Tells you when you last visited a site, what pages you accessed, and lets you remove the site from your Firefox history
Each of these rating is compiled from multiple sources. For example the safety rating is compiled using McAfee SiteAdvisor, WOT, Web Security Guard, Browser Defender, RGguard, Norton Safe Web, Compete and Google Safe Browsing while the KidSafe rating is based on data from Alexa, WOT and ICRA.
This is an impressive set of data that should allow users to make informed decisions about sites they visit.
Here's a screenshot of Google results for a classic hazardous search: "Free screensaver." You can easily see which sites are safe and those that are not.
Searches done through the LinkExtend Toolbar itself use the ixquick meta search engine that combines the top results for many different search engines. I found the results good but slow compared to a straight Google search. And as I mentioned earlier, you still get LinkExtend annotations even on a standard Google search. In fact I turned off the LinkExtend Toolbar to save some screen space.
Search safety can be further improved by using LinkExtend to filter out particular search results. So for example, you could configure LinkExtend to hide unsafe sites or non-KidSafe search results. This is an optional feature that you can configure to meet your needs.
But LinkExtend's features aren't just limited to safety; it adds many productivity tools including website thumbnails, last time you visited the site, site reviews and much more.
All up this is a most impressive package. Sure it may slow down your searches a tad but most users will find the additional information provided more than worth the slight delay.
Gizmo
LinkExtend is freeware and contains no adware or spyware.
LinkExtend Home Page: http://www.linkextend.com/
LinkExtend Mozilla Page: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10777
Adendum: I asked the developer how the security ratings from different services were combined. Here's his response:
The main security rating is decided in this way:
- Low Risk - No service has found the site to be unsafe, or only one service found it to be medium risk.
- Medium Risk - At least two services have found the site to be medium risk, or only one service found it to be high risk.
- High Risk - At least two services have found the site to be high risk.
- Unknown - No service has rated the safety of the site
- Article type:
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Comments
GREAT PROGRAM.TRY-IT.
Thanks!
Zia
Had to uninstall app, kept locking up system,had CPU pegged out at 100% usage. Problem went away as soon as I removed it. Crazewolf
I am not running Crazewolf but I mentioned earlier my (XP sp3 /current Firefox) system went immediately to emergency shut down/blue screen/physical memory dump/restart... the indicated reason "windows detection....protecting my computer from potential risk". This occurred on now two attempts. No way to figure the problem. Everything else downloaded & otherwise runs/works fine.
I know this is way off base but I have just read all the comments re Gizmo and Windows Secrets.
I sent an email to WS about 3 months ago berating them over the mundane and passe content. With the exception of security news, their modus operandi appears to consist mainly of re-hashing old news/stories. IMHO their news letter is, mostly, not worth the read. On the other hand, Gizmo's was always current, informative and a pleasure to read.
I realise there is zero chance of Gizmo returning, that is a shame....WS certainly does not fill the breach.
Anyway, thanks Gizmo for the years of informative and instructional entertainment.
cheers...JIM
Amen to that Jim. I think the difference is that Gizmo wrote with enthusiasm about what interested him and because he was like us, we found it interesting too. Well I did anyway.
With the exception of Fred Langa I don't think any of the Windows Secrets writers have any genuine interest in or enthusiasam about software or PCs. They write about PCs because they get paid to, not becaue they love it. The result: boring mediocrity.
Ken Sommers
No one else reported any bug like this. Is there any chance you can help us look into this, by giving us more information like if there are errors in the error console and what firefox version and operating system you are using?
I had a hugely interesting thing happen when I went to simply download....Windows went into emergency shut down (blue screen) claiming it was doing so to protect operations of my computer & then continued to do a physical memory dump & restart. Really unexpected with all the feedback.
I won't be rushing back to soon to have anything to do with this device.
Adding, I am with all the other Giz fans this Windows Secret is a snooze in comparison to the old style. I too looked forward to every edition. I can't tolerate the push to buy...adverts shouldn't be part of this.
I honestly won't be considering to resubscribe & that didn't happen before, it was a no brainer. It was money well spent.
TSA is completely independent from Windows Secrets.
The only connection is that G. writes some Articles for them ... that's it.
LinkExtend is completely open source. I looked in the code: no exe files or dll files or anything of the sort. It is all simple JavaScript and XML. There is nothing in the extension that could have caused a Windows reboot. I guess you have a virus which has nothing to do with LinkExtend. LinkExtend has been downloaded over a thousand times on Mozilla and received only positive ratings.
How would you suggest we fund our site, and the new forum, if we don't use advertising?
...as an original Gizmo subscriber...the paid subscriber platform was a obvious success & seemed to keep it alive & well until it was more recently gobbled up.
I'm afraid there is no possibility of the TSA newsletter coming back.
Our loss, as well as yours.
Degolem did not renew, but occasionally enjoys Gizmo's postings....
Some of the LinkExtend reports are not accurate. For example, when I searched "free screensaver" in Google, number 20 in the list was
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/fvzanten/screensite/
McAfee SiteAdvisor rates this site red (high risk) - but LinkExtend rates it only medium risk, and reports (incorrectly) that SiteAdvisor rates it as low risk.
It looks to me like you are wrong.
McAfee rated this site as safe: http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/nl.net
Can you paste me the link where they rate it as high risk?
Maybe only SiteAdvisor or some other advisor found it to be a high risk. Or maybe two programs found it as a medium risk and it had SiteAdvisor wrong. Either way it was right to mark it as a medium risk, by its own rules that Gizmo cites.
But it is troubling that it got SiteAdvisor's rating wrong. How often does this happen? Maybe SiteAdvisor had updated or something.
Here is the SiteAdvisor link:
http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/inter.nl.net/hcc/fvzanten
SiteAdvisor says that the free screensaver site has links has eight other high-risk sites.
LinkExtend gets the wrong rating because it is looking at SiteAdvisor's report on www.nl.net (an invalid address) rather than the site listed by Google (which is http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/fvzanten/screensite/).
Clearly, we have to be concerned about how often LinkExtend makes errors like this (or different errors).
Thanks for the info...
This is a bug on mcafees end:
high risk - http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/inter.nl.net/hcc/fvzanten
unknown - http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/inter.nl.net/hcc/fvzanten/screensite/
unknown - http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/inter.nl.net
unknown - http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/web.inter.nl.net
safe - http://www.siteadvisor.com/sites/nl.net
You have to understand, that I can not have LinkExtend check the url each time because then mcafee will just give unknown to most urls.
So I have to let it check the host. In this case it would return unknown if i checked with subdomain and safe when i checked without subdomain.
If you can find any solution for this problem, then I'd be happy to consider it.
I wonder if anyone else has found that if you try to change LinkExtend's default options using Firefox's Tools>Add-ons dialog box, nothing happens when you click the OK button.
I have this problem as well. By chance I elected to have the LE logo on the far left of the toolbar. This has a (click-on) dropdown menu & options works Ok (for me ) from there !:-o))
Thanks for reporting this bug. I'll make sure to fix it for the release of LinkExtend version 1.0.1
I found an odd bug too and I haven't even been able to test the program yet.
I went to install it but then I saw that it was a large download size, so canceled and put off downloading it from my slow dialup. I have to wait and do my downloading all at once or I'll pull my hair out.
But then after I restarted Firefox, it had mysteriously installed its toolbar. I thought I had canceled!
It easily uninstalled though. So it is not a serious bug.
But... I still don't like the idea that an XPI setup/install file can even do that! First time I saw it.
Rizar
Yup, at first the download size seemed huge! Then, when I was thinking about canceling it, it just finished... The true size is far smaller, around 300-400 kb if I recall correctly. LinkExtend still new though, so what do you expect? Despite its shortcomings, I agree with Gizmo that it's worth it.
Sure did. Good thing I pretty much configured it to my needs during setup. If you want to really change your settings, I suggest you do the same, or find an alternative to this.
*edit*
Oh yeah, I found out that you can edit the linkextend.js file in C:\Documents and Settings\(your username)\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\(your profile, if you don't have a custom one, just go to default)\extensions\{cf47767d-5f3a-4e32-9fce-5d79565c9702}\defaults\preferences(XP location, may be different for your OS, I just used Everything a free search utility) using Notepad, after extracting the .xpi file with Universal Extractor and exploring the contents. That way, your configurations will be effective, and it isn't that hard to edit at all. Also it only takes effect if you aren't running firefox, if you are, restart it.
I like the choice of ixquick as a search engine, its one of the few that does a lot to protect your privacy.
'Ixquick does not record the IP addresses of our legitimate users.
Cookies: Ixquick abolished the use of Unique ID cookies as of June 6th, 2006.
Ixquick only uses an anonymous cookie that is used to remember the search engine settings, stored on the local PC, and a session-only cookie to prevent showing duplicate search results.'
I use the Customize Google extension for Firefox to set some privacy options for Google use.
Here is a link to Customize Google:
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/743
I have just installed it & it seems great. The following may help :-
1) if you go to the website & read the help page, it answered all my questions & made setup really easy ( for a non-tech like me ).
2) I rely on Google Toolbar for most of my work ; but check out the dropdown menu of the LE toolbar search button - more search sites than you can shake a stick at !! Hours of timewasting - sorry - research available here.
3) you may need to disable Google Preview if you use it - it's sort of included.
4) for me , you get all the good points & few, if any , of the bad points/clutter of the other site advisors ; as they have packaged pretty much everything else you might want in the dropdowns of each button . Hope they can keep more "up to date" than McAfferty!!
Thanks for the heads up Gizmo !:-))
(I'm a lucky Sandboxie guy as well;o))
Ironically, I think that #3 on the screensaver search list that shows somewhat adult content (the female cartoon with tight fitting clothing) is incorrectly indicated as child-safe (the child icon is not crossed out on the right). Wouldn't that indicate the filters on LinkExtend aren't that accurate?
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