WOT (Web of Trust) blog

The next chapter: A shiny new WOT is on the way!

Sami — Tue, 14 May 2013 13:04:05 +0000

It’s been a while since we’ve revealed any major changes to the WOT system, but there is a good reason for that! We have spent tons of time developing the next version of our service that will build WOT’s role as the most trusted community-powered website reputation service - a service that makes the Internet a safer place for all of us. If you’ve been following the download tracker on our homepage, you will have seen that WOT has grown significantly during the past 18 months. This growth offers us lots of great opportunities, but at the same time it means that we have a responsibility to serve a wider audience with various needs and user habits. We have continuously analyzed how people use WOT and listened to your helpful feedback and we truly believe that this new system will make a huge difference to your WOT usage. First of all, the transparency and informative quality of the service will be significantly improved and make it easier for anyone to come to a decision whether it is safe to visit a site or not. The new categorization interface will prompt users to make more accurate ratings and identify reasons to support their ratings. Users are also encouraged to leave more focused comments to help other users. The new WOT will provide users with better reputation coverage on the rapidly growing amount of websites. This will enable you to discover the reputation for less well-known websites, as well as more established ones. We have also designed new algorithmic improvements to the system, which will improve the confidence of the reputations and increase the reliability and trustworthiness of WOT. We are confident that the reputation score will better match users’ own experiences in the future. Whether a user is simply utilizing the traffic lights to make browsing decisions, or rating 100 sites per day, the new WOT will be easier to use and more engaging than ever before (you might even call it addictive). This will be a big step forward for us and we hope we will continue this great journey with all of you. We will reveal further details about the key changes within the upcoming days and ultimately the new WOT will be out of ‘stealth mode’ with the beta launch very soon, so stay tuned!

Leaving quality comments

annaleena — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:51:02 +0000

As you might have noticed, a while ago we made some changes to the comment field on the scorecard. We have added some tips on commenting and a minimum limit of 30 characters. This is part of a series of product improvements that we are planning to roll out gradually.

The aim of these changes is to ensure that comments do what they are supposed to do – help other users decide if they can trust a site or not.

Here are some of our thoughts on what we think are quality comments:

They should include descriptions of users experiences with a site. Explain what happened or what you saw that made you form your opinion.
They could also include evidence to support the rating, especially if you have given the site a poor rating.
They are truthful. It is good to keep in mind that each user is responsible for their comments.
They are precise and to the point. It is good to make your comment informative, but there is no need to write a book.
Obviously, spam messages are not good comments.

Do you have any other criteria for quality comments? Share with us in the comments section below!

WOT reached 70 million downloads!

annaleena — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 12:13:28 +0000

Thanks to our active community, WOT today reached the significant milestone of

downloads.

Do you think we can reach 100 million by summer? You can help – Visit the recommendation page and let your friends know about WOT! :)

About.com’s Readers’ Choice Awards 2013: Vote WOT for the best Privacy / Security Add-On!

annaleena — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 14:36:27 +0000

It’s that time of the year again! Thanks to your nominations, WOT has been elected as a finalist in About.com’s Readers’ Choice Awards in the Best Privacy / Security Add-On Category.

Each year, the awards highlight the best products, features and services. Last year WOT won its category with the mighty share of 75 % of the votes!

To help WOT win again, please submit your vote. The voting is open until March 19.

Preview: New front page

annaleena — Mon, 11 Feb 2013 13:31:56 +0000

We are working on a new front page. You will see the result later this week!

The aim of the change is to give new visitors a better idea about WOT: where the ratings come from, how do they protect when browsing the web, and why should people use WOT.

The most significant change to current users is that some of the elements will change their place. The menu, currently located at the top of the page, will be moved to the footer. There you’ll find links to the forum, Community page, and elsewhere. For now, this change will only be applied to the front page.

Once the new front page is revealed (will happen very soon), we hope to hear your feedback. You can see a little preview of what is coming up on the right.

Edit (13th of February):The new front page is now published, but we are A/B testing it. Therefore, for now, only half of the page visitors see it. If you happen to be among them, let us know what you think of the new front page!

Safer Internet Day – How do you "Connect with respect"?

annaleena — Mon, 04 Feb 2013 14:22:20 +0000

Today is the 10th national Safer Internet Day. Celebrated in more than 90 countries worldwide, the day promotes safe, responsible use of Internet by children and young people. This year the theme of the day is online rights and responsibilities with the slogan “Connect with respect”.

That is a good rule to remember for adults too, especially in online communities such as WOT, where people of different age, background and cultures meet. To make it pleasant for all to work together for safer Internet, treating others with respect is very important.

What could “Connect with respect” mean in the context of WOT? Here are some ideas:

When rating sites

Your ratings help other users stay safe on the web. Rate all sites that you use and know well, especially if the site does not have a reputation yet, or if the confidence of its reputation is low.
Keep in mind that a poor rating can be very damaging to the site owner. Stand behind your ratings, and do not give them on a light basis.
If you have the mass rating tool in your use, make sure to use it with careful consideration, and verify the sites you rate.
Take part in discussions on the Site evaluations forum to help site owners solve problems with their sites’ reputations.

When taking part in the forum discussions and leaving comments

Use polite language and maintain a friendly tone, even when disagreeing with someone.
If you have a question, please respect others time by looking for the answer in the WOT Wiki or in the Support section before posting on the forum.
Do not spam. Spamming is simply annoying.

Check the forum guidelines for more useful advises.

If you are a site owner and post a site evaluation request

When you post the request, be polite and stay on topic, even if you are upset about your site’s reputation. If you have recently made improvements to your site, make sure to let the community know about them and why you think your site now deserves a better reputation.
The WOT community is volunteering their time and effort to respond to you request and giving you valuable feedback. Appreciate it by taking part in the discussion and answering questions they might have.

Do you have other suggestions on what “Connect with respect” could mean in the context of WOT? Please share them on the comments!

Happy Safer Internet Day to all!

“Respect is a two-way street, if you want to get it, you've got to give it.”
― R. G. Risch

Something great just happened

annaleena — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 10:01:08 +0000

Noticed anything interesting on our front page? Not…? Look again!

The counter just passed 60 million downloads!!!!

A year ago about this same time we reached 30 million downloads, so in twelve months WOT has doubled its downloads.

Users come from everywhere. Some time ago we made a poll and asked you to guess where you think WOT would NOT have any users. Most of you guessed North Korea, but that was incorrect. WOT does have users in North Korea, in East Timor, in Nauru, as well as in the Vatican. One of the very few places without any WOT users is Tuvalu, a small Polynesian island nation located in the Pacific Ocean. So, if any of you know anyone in Tuvalu, please ask them to download WOT. We want Tuvaluan people in the community too!

Earlier this month WOT also reached another important milestone: 40 million rated sites. That means a lot of work for the community. 40 million rated sites is a great achievement and please keep up the work: rate sites that don’t have a rating yet, and also sites that do have a rating to increase the confidence of their reputation. Your ratings helps other people from landing on an untrustworthy sites and get the best out of the World Wide Web.

Thank you, dear community, for helping achieve these two important milestones!

Also read the press release Web of Trust Hits 60 Million Downloads Milestone.

Announcing recipients of the User Awards 2012

annaleena — Mon, 14 Jan 2013 11:06:21 +0000

Dear community,

It is time to announce the recipient of the User Awards 2012!

We thank you all who submitted your vote for the Member of the Year category. Also, we thank you all for your contribution for the Safer Web during 2012. Please note that these awards are to keep up the good spirit, and are not to be taken too seriously. All community members are equally appreciated!

The first three categories were based on activities on the forum. The competition was strict – many of you would have deserved an award. You are all winners, but only one receives an award in each category.

The Most Active award goes to the user that has started most forum discussions – brought new online threats to light and maintained an active discussion within the community.

The award goes to evilfantasy.

The Problem Solver award goes to the user that has replied most to site evaluation requests – helped site owners to deal with problems with their site’s reputation.

The award goes to shazza.

The Techie award goes to the user that has been active on the support forum – helped other users with technical issues.

The award goes to c۞g.

The winner of the fourth category, Member of the Year, was based on your votes. Each registered user had one vote.

The award went to the person that you thought deserved it for being active, helpful, and respectful to others, and helping the community work together with a positive attitude.

The award goes to c۞g.

Several community members received votes, but we do believe the person who finally got most of them does fill the criteria very well. Thank you all who submitted your vote!

Warm congratulations to the winners, and thank you once again for taking part!

Introducing a translation feature

annaleena — Wed, 09 Jan 2013 13:23:01 +0000

We are getting a massive amount of user-generated content in different languages. The versatility of languages is richness, but they are a bit tricky to understand if you don’t happen to speak the language in question. Therefore, we have added a new feature to help our users communicate with each other.

The new feature translates scorecard comments, forum discussions, and board messages from French, German, Italian, Polish, Spanish, and Turkish into Russian or English, which are the languages that our site is currently translated to. You can also use it to translate from Russian to English and vice versa. Simply press Translate and it will show the text in the language you are using the site.

The feature is provided by Yandex Translate. Спасибо!

Question: If you were to learn another language, which language would it be?

Note to site owners: Watch out for fake WOT emails!

annaleena — Mon, 07 Jan 2013 12:54:12 +0000

We have heard reports of some site owners receiving emails promising a good reputation in exchange for money after posting a review request on the WOT forum. These emails are a scam, and have not been sent by WOT.

WOT never sends promotional email after you request reviews, and does not sell reputations. Each website has to earn their reputation, which is determined by user ratings and trusted third-party sources. WOT Trust Seals are only available to sites that have already earned their good reputation.

We are currently investigating the source of these emails. At the moment, it looks like they originate from Ukraine, and the motivation is either to scam unsuspecting site owners, or to tarnish WOT’s reputation. The latter is also known as joe jobbing.

Note: The people sending these emails find the site owner's contact information from their websites. Nobody has access to the email address in your WOT profile.

Here's an example of a fake email that was reported on the WOT forum:

[name], congratulations on becoming a member of the Web of Trust community! We noticed that your current rating can be improved. By installing one of our Trust Badges on your website, you can improve your reputation and get the good rating that your web site deserves. The cost is only 1600 Euros for one year.

Just follow this link to get your Web of Trust badge:

Sign Up for Web of Trust Badge

Sincerely,
Michel Suome, WOT Services

If you receive an email offering to improve your reputation, please send us the full email, including headers (or post it to the forum), and ignore it. Never pay anyone to “fix” a reputation!

How to recognize the scam email

The email suggests it’s possible to pay to improve a reputation. This is not possible under any circumstances.
The From address is not from mywot.com. Note that this is easy to fake, so the sender address should not be relied upon, but a non-mywot address is an obvious sign of foul play.
The email is sent to a different address than the one you used to create your WOT account, or was posted through your website’s contact form. It also may not mention the name of your WOT account.
There are links in the email that do not point to mywot.com. Never give your personal information or credit card number to these sites.

More advanced users can also look at the email headers to find out from where it originates. If you are unsure about the authenticity of the email, ignore it.