WOT - SurfCanyon safe search engine

[deya]

Does anyone use this? .. I've never come across it before and can't really seem to find much about it anywhere. WOT - SurfCanyon search engine

It's really useful with browsers that don't support WOT because you get the WOT ratings with your search results, but without the add-on. I've tried it with Opera, Sleipnir and QTWeb. Obviously, it doesn't block sites, but it filters out the bad sites anyway.

I've searched around but can't seem to find anything on here about it, the only thing I've been able to find of any use is this, although there are a couple mentions of it on the WOT website from 2009.

This may just be me having another senior moment, but does anyone know more about this?.. is it to be trusted?... or am I the only person never to have come across it before?

[deya]

Sorry,.. I've found it one here now, it's on the best internet safety check page. Can't understand why I never came across this before ... or maybe it's because I''m dim.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by deya

Sorry,.. I've found it one here now, it's on the best internet safety check page. Can't understand why I never came across this before ... or maybe it's because I''m dim.

There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something

Thanks for bringing this up. Must take a look-see!

[deya]

"but it is not always quite the something you were after".. which pretty much sums up my searches. The thing is, I never knew there was a WOT search engine. This is really useful to me, much easier than using those bookmarklets or whatever in browsers that don't support add-ons. I just wondered if anyone else used it.

[vasa1]

Originally Posted by deya

"but it is not always quite the something you were after".. which pretty much sums up my searches. The thing is, I never knew there was a WOT search engine. This is really useful to me, much easier than using those bookmarklets or whatever in browsers that don't support add-ons. I just wondered if anyone else used it.

Hi Deya, I gave this a brief spin. I searched twice, once for "userchrome", and the second time for "free screen saver".

The first search gave a uniform little bullseye.bmp on the side for each of the results asking me to click on it for a real-time recommendation (which I didn't).

I thought the search was too bland and so tried "free screen saver". The result was the same. To know whether the search result is safe or not requires us to click on the bullseye.bmp. One can't tell at a glance how many search results on the page point to safe or unsafe sites.

So as things stand, I'll stick with Google (plus the conventional WOT extension) until someone has some better news.

[deya]

Clicking on the little bullseye reveals more search results, they cascade down showing more links. Each link has the WOT colour rating at the side and if you click the WOT icon you get the WOT rating page. Click on 'more results' at the bottom of the page and it shows page 2, 3, 4 and so on. Again, if you click the bullseyes it reveals even more results.

I did the 'free screensaver' search and if you watch as the page loads you can see lots of the links disappearing, leaving only a couple on the page. I'm assuming it's filtering out the bad sites? .. like at the top of the search page where you have the 'Exclude sites with poor reputation' and 'Exclude adult content' options .. and so maybe that's why it looks bland to you, plus it uses Bing and not Google so the results will be different anyway.

I've not come across any red rated sites, plenty of yellow and grey, so again, I'm assuming it doesn't show the bad sites in your searches. The more bullseyes you 'click for real time recommendations' the more results it shows, and each result gives you the WOT colour rating, giving you the option to view the scorecard, just like the WOT bookmarklet does in browsers where you can't use the add-on, at least that's the way I see it.

Click the WOT logo at the top left takes you to this, WOT search engine, again it gives you the same results, so once again, I'm assuming it's to be trusted.

I can't use WOT with QTWeb, Spleipnir, Maxthon 3 or Opera, but I can with this, [although I know you can use the script thing with Opera] .. so this just seems like a reasonable solution to me. They only drawback being that it won't block sites if I click on links other than the ones in the search results but, hopefully, Norton DNS will give me some back up with that.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by deya

Does anyone use this? .. I've never come across it before and can't really seem to find much about it anywhere. WOT - SurfCanyon search engine

It's really useful with browsers that don't support WOT because you get the WOT ratings with your search results, but without the add-on. I've tried it with Opera, Sleipnir and QTWeb. Obviously, it doesn't block sites, but it filters out the bad sites anyway.

Can you explain in words that MC can understand how you set this up with Sleipnir please? No doubt I´m looking for the complicated when the simple answer is staring me in the face but I can´t get the WOT icons to appear

[vasa1]

I'm in exalted company. Even I don't get the WOT (rating) icons (using K-Meleon). When I click on the bullseye.bmp next to a search result, that search result unfolds and gives subsets that also have the bullseye.bmp. This happens even if I click on a result in the subset.

I have Chrome, FF 3.6.8, FF beta 3, and IE6 to play with but my preference is to get it to work with Chrome because then I can be 100% extension-free as far as Chrome goes.

In edit:
Just tried with FF beta 3. Same result. Finally, I clicked on the link itself upon which a notice appeared that WOT doesn't like it and the bright red ring was part of the notice. (Incidentally, its a search for "free screensaver".)

I also didn't see the live refinement that Deya mentioned. (My first hit turned out to be WOT-red.)

[deya]

Ok, so now I've dug a little deeper into this, for my own curiosity and also for anyone who's interested on here. First off, this is an article about Surf Canyon, and an interview with CEO, Mark Cramer. Then this, which is from the WOT blog, explaining about their partnership with Surf Canyon, and in which it says this about the project - "Now Web surfers can get the WOT experience without having the add-on"

This is the Surf Canyon search engine, and this is the WOT search engine [same as I posted before] .. and as you see, it's the same thing, except that the WOT search gives the WOT ratings as well as the Surf Canyon bullseyes.

Like I said at the start, I've not heard of this before, maybe lots of you have, but it intrigues me and I reckon it's a good idea.

It says in the Mark Cramer interview - "Since Surf Canyon has flown under so many of our radars" .. well, mine included. But I'm glad I found it now because I think it's really useful if you use a browser where you can't use the WOT add-on... even though it was right here, under my nose, at Gizmos all along.

Luna is a brilliant triple engine browser but it doesn't have Presto [and nor do I expect it to] so I have to have Opera installed for occasional use. And I like Opera, especially this latest version, but all the messing around to get WOT to work in it just puts me off using it so much, and no doubt lots of others. This search engine, WOT - Surf Canyon, encourages me to use it more now, I can see the WOT ratings in my searches, same as I can in my other browsers that don't have the add-on. It's just another tool to help make my day a little easier.

[MidnightCowboy]

Originally Posted by vasa1

I'm in exalted company. Even I don't get the WOT (rating) icons (using K-Meleon). When I click on the bullseye.bmp next to a search result, that search result unfolds and gives subsets that also have the bullseye.bmp. This happens even if I click on a result in the subset.

I feel much better now already

I´m not even sure if the downloaded plugin for IE is meant to transfer to Sleipnir as wel, or whether I need to set up something manually via the search prefs?

To be honest I´m not much bothered about my other browsers because they all accept WOT anyway but not being able to get these ratings easily was the one thing holding me back with Sleipnir.