I've been using Web of Trust's (WOT later) Firefox plugin for a while now and I have to say it has become extremely useful in my day-to-day usage. There are some interesting reasons behind it and I thought I should discuss this with our readers. WOT is a service we've blogged on ArcticStartup a few times and the previous mention was Monty's investment into the company.

I decided to take their Firefox plugin into use sometime back to see if it was any good. Today, it has become an inseparable part of my web surfing experience. I see a lot of potential in the company and the direction it is headed. Why is it so? Let me explain.

First of all, I get a lot of e-mails on a daily basis. I read my personal and ArcticStartup e-mails from GMail through the browser. I've tuned my methods of work so that I follow many of the GTD rules with regards to my e-mail. I value productivity and effectiveness to the max. Thus, I don't always have time to go though all the e-mails with the kind of precision and focus they deserve. However, this is where WOT kicks in. Their plugin is ingenious in the way it shows the outgoing links and their trustworthiness with a simple icon.

Above is a screencapture of how Google search results are shown with the plugin active. This is similar to how the links are shown in GMail - WOT shows the trustworthiness of each link going out from the e-mail. This saves me a ton of time as I don't bother to follow any links that are marked red, ie. rated dangerous by the community behind WOT. Simple productivity tip, but in the end - it gives me more free time to do the things I want.

Secondly - something that many successful products and services have done to their users. The secret is that they become invisible. By invisible I mean that their users do not notice using them anymore - they just do it. It doesn't require any extra effort - you've also allowed the services to get very close to your personal usage habits. I trust WOT enough to keep it online all the time and serve me best when it sees. In other words, I trust the company that it does not misbehave regarding the trust of privacy I have granted it.

This second point is extremely important in terms of many startups and services I believe. The best adopted services and products become invisible to the user - I for example, don't notice or take any extra effort to sign into Wordpress and start blogging - it just happens. When you have to put more effort than you consider natural - the service isn't properly adopted by the user. Things just work and WOT does just that - it does not annoy me in my browser, but it does save me from malicious links and linkbaiters trying to sell us nonsense.

Think about it for a minute, you don't really think of "using" the web services that you mostly use - you just do it, right?

4 Comments

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deborah May 12, 2009

Thanks, Antti, for the great write-up about WOT. Who knew being invisible could be such an important quality, but you are right. WOT sits quietly in your browser, confirming your safety as you surf the Internet, but when there is a need to be cautious WOT alerts you so you can avoid clicking on a risky link.

Our community is growing – we have over 4 million downloads of the add-on now. WOT users enjoy the quiet protection they get, and many are active in rating websites. Rating sites that you have experience with is vitally important, especially when it comes to vendor reliability and child safety. It’s our active, conscientious community working together that is making the Internet a safer place to surf, search and shop.

Thank you again for your support. We are proud to be a Finnish company with a worldwide reach.

Safe surfing,
Deborah
Web of Trust

vilpponen2 May 12, 2009

Good products and services deserve the praise. Thanks for that! :)

Frank J, May 12, 2009

I am a big fan of WOT and will never surf the internet without it. I highly recommend this add-on!!!

Juho Makkonen May 13, 2009

How often do you actually come across sites that are not fully trusted by WOT? I tried some random google searches and couldn't find any. Obviously links in spam messages are untrustworthy, but spam is quite easily recognizable, so it has never crossed my mind to click those links anyway.

I also went through some spam comments to my blog and noticed that WOT listed almost all of them trustworthy. The system seems to not be quite perfect so far.

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