Websites to Avoid: Installment #36 - "The 101 Most Useful Websites" - according to Telegraph.co.uk and compiled by David Baker on March 3, 2008

Thursday, September 4, 2008

I periodically follow a fantastic blog entitled Tip Toe and I recently clicked on one of the links to "The 101 Most Useful Websites" done by a website out of Great Britain. I checked into 65 of them (some were exclusive to the location of the website owners) and found 20 not-so-safe ones. Of the 45 good ones, I am happy to say I found 8 I really liked! (Brief descriptions at the end of this post.)

Here are my results:

BAD:

ilounge.com
zoho.com
whatsonwhen.com
imdb.com
rottentomatoes.com
football365.com
lulu.com
instructables.com
gamespot.com
rhymezone.com
digg.com
wikipedia.org
about.com
xe.com
facebook.com
technorati.com
gumtree.com
engadget.com
seatguru.com
airlinemeals.net

GOOD:

Only2clicks is a website where you can organize all of your favorite or most visited sites all on one page.
Liveplasma finds music and videos especially for your tastes.
Wonderhowto offers many instructional videos on all kinds of topics.
Nationmaster is a really cool site having tons of data on tons of countries.
Martindalecenter is a website that leads to other websites with the info you seek.
Babelfish is the coolest translator.
Bubbl is a brainstorming website.
FrictionTV has many debates on current issues.

Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

The Internet has become a part of life - of the world's estimated 6.7 billion people, 24.7% of them use the Internet - that's over 1.6 billion people - and boy, does that excite the "cyber-creeps!"

But, adware and spyware are not the only things that can make a website "bad." Websites need to be checked on several issues - excessive or potentially dangerous spam, the integrity of the site's downloads, their use or abuse of third party tracking cookies, reports of malware, browser exploits, phishing, scams, or bad shopping experiences, and, of course, virus infections.

I rely a lot on Siteadvisor (by McAfee) - SA can either be used online (my preference) or downloaded. WOT (Web of Trust) and Finjan Secure Browsing are browser add-ons available as free downloads. I use all three!

However, word of mouth and personal experience are equally vital. That is why my blog/website is one of many vehicles of precaution you need to use faithfully.

Protect your Computer!

Even though you may have security software installed (free or not) and regularly run them, never let your guard down and "click" without thinking!

Be sure to use a firewall, anti-virus protection, anti-spyware, and system optimizers and/or cleaners - and defrag your PC on a regular basis!

Update these programs weekly, if not more! New infections surface every day!

(NOTE: Personally, I use Avira anti-virus, Spybot Search & Destroy, SpywareGuard, Advanced System Optimizer, Ccleaner, IOBit Security, Diskeeper Lite defragmenter, and Windows Firewall & Windows Defender (Microsoft) - and, of course, my browser is Firefox with AdBlock and Finjan enabled!)

Websites to Avoid

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Installment #36 - "The 101 Most Useful Websites" - according to Telegraph.co.uk and compiled by David Baker on March 3, 2008

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Why Websites to Avoid is Vital

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