Thursday, March 15, 2012

Don't Trust the Web of Trust (WOT)

Web of Trust is a web site dedicated to informing its users about bad web sites that could potentially cause problems. Whether that be spammers, potential malware, or any other danger that lurks on the web. Just one problem though, it doesn't actually work. Well I shouldn't say that, it works, kind of in the same way the A-Bomb works.

Allow me to provide some back story.

I have been working on a site for doing code reviews called Codetique.com. I purchased the domain through my web host in January of 2011. I held the domain for about a year and finally started working on the actual application at the beginning of 2012. I have done a few minor releases and today came to discover from a helpful redditor, that my site has a terrible reputation with Web of Trust. Which was a bummer but considering I had never heard of it before today I figured it would be fairly easy to fix or ignore. Then several people made similar comments so clearly this WOT reputation holds some merit.

It seems that around 2009 the domain was accused of spamming in some variety and blacklisted by a "third-party trusted source". All of that is probably true, I didn't own the domain at that time and I have no way of knowing who did, it was available when I purchased it. Anyway I own the domain now so I created an account on WOT and setup my site to prove that I owned it. If you check out the reputation page for my domain the "third-party trusted source" link doesn't even work!? So not only does your reputation not change even after 3 years but the "third-party trusted sources" that WOT uses don't exist anymore. Yet this tool that supposedly millions of people are blissfully using is passing judgements on domains without any kind of current references.

The fact that WOT is using 3 year old sources as Gospel is bad enough, but I can't get any of the past bad reviewers to come back and alter their review. It was 3 years ago they have probably moved on to other things. I did file for a new review and got one person to check it out and leave good feedback but the WOT algorithm is too dumb to properly weigh one current review more than several past ones so the reputation of Codetique.com of WOT is still bad.

If the algorithm doesn't work properly for improving reputation I would be very surprised if it worked for hurting reputation either. Meaning if hypothetically Facebook were to go bankrupt in a few years (it's a stretch but stranger things have happened). A malicious site could be put in it's place and WOT would give it an amazing rating and no matter how many times it was marked as bad it would probably still have an amazing rating because of all the prior entries that marked it as good are weighted just as heavily as any current entries that mark it as bad.

Bottom line if you are using WOT tools you are a fool. Not only are you letting yourself be frightened away from potentially good sites but you are buying into the mind set that nothing on the web changes.

I think the most annoying thing of this whole situation is that there is no one to contact directly to have issues like the non-existing "third-party trusted source" fixed. I just wonder how many other great sites have poor reputations because WOT isn't smart enough to realize that domains can change in an instant.

If you want to help me out you can give my site a positive rating at http://www.mywot.com/en/scorecard/codetique.com. But an even better thing to do would be to stop using their tools and tell anyone who does use them what a joke they actually are.

46 comments:

  1. MyWOT does not provide true and accurate information about a web site, as any user (trusted or not) can open an account at MyWOT and vote against any web site he does not like.

    Anyone can devalue your web site at MyWOT, when he dislikes your opinion. MyWOT can not and does not want to distinguish between "dislike a website" and "distrust a website". For them both is the same. That's very dangerous and will harm your business. This way hundreds of well reputed websites with excellent content are deep in the red.

    If any of your websites is on a free web hoster's subdomain then it gets the same bad trustworthiness as the web hoster, no matter whether the site is a bad one containing malware or a good one containing useful information. By doing so, MyWOT has destroyed the reputation of thousands of excellent websites.

    You have to act on your behalf to raise your reputation: You have to tell all the people you know to register with MyWOT and to rate your site positively.
    Don't do that! That's just a clever marketing trick to gain new users for MyWOT, while your site will remain deep in the red.
    Be aware that just posting an excellent review does not get you out of the dirt.

    If you have opened an account at MyWOT be careful to not post critics about them. They censor! That's why MyWOT is excellent rated when checking them on their own service, but has a bad reputation among the web in forums and blogs.

    I absolutely do not recommend MyWOT. Use any malware detection service, virus scanner or similar tool instead. They all provide real and true trustworthiness. MyWOT does not.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. WOT trashed my website for no reason. It's a small family business that has been around for a long time and it has an excellent reputation. The deeper I got with the WOT people, the worse my site's ratings got. They seem to like being malicious and arbitrary. I wouldn't trust them any further than I could throw them. I curse the day I got involved with these people. I wouldn't be surprised if they are a bunch of teenage boys just getting their jollies out of trashing people's businesses.

      Delete
    2. I would agree with you , we joined MyWot and within 30 minutes had people PM'ing us with abuse and contacting Youtube etc claiming our profiles should be removed.

      Avoid Wot.

      Delete
  2. WOT is useless since it is not a professional security tool, anyone can submit their rating thus the sites with bad reputation are usually the ad company home site or file hosting sites

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  3. Lot of frustrated people out there who don’t know what to do with all the bad rating mywot gives them. Here are some who are trying to do some about it. Mywot reviews

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  4. https://www.mywot.com/en/faq
    Read and inform yourself !
    The rest is a malicious agenda , from people who have misunderstood or are rated negative but in a valid manner
    Best wishes !

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL Fuck you.

      Delete
    2. Yes Fuck you so much you lier! :) Mywot is a scam, you can pay for good ratings direct by buying their complete useless tools or just pay the power users there secretly. The "support forum" is only there to humiliate websiteowners publically till they are so desperate that they give up and spend money on the useless expensive tools. Biggest scam on the internet wich is hidden behind crowed intelligence.

      Delete
  5. As JimDoesCode points out, the key to any reputation system is the rating algorithm and the logistics surrounding membership. If a reputation system doesn't have a strong algorithm that resists gaming and the organization is not responsive to the people using it, the result is worse for the Internet at large.

    Bad information with an unwarranted badge of credibility is much worse than no information at all.

    Dave Hess
    Founder Trust-Inn.com

    ReplyDelete
  6. I've found out that the reason it is so hard to change the automatic negative rating is that some users get extra rating ability equal to 1000 of regular users. It is highly biased and is censorship at its worst. The way that they've done their algorithm is that some sites - like government sites - are all automatically trustworthy....unless it is a site they don't like...like Iran. Bottom line is that it is self-appointed internet policing that is subject to bias, control and manipulation. BUT, of course you can purchase their badge of trust for a fee. Extortion is what it is called. Don't rate anyone - ignore them entirely and spread the word about this malicious product.

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  7. Despite MyWot's claims, I think there are reasons to be very cautious about MyWot's culture. The biggest obvious problem is that they have automated software tools where some influential people rate ridiculously large numbers of websites per day without even having personal contact or knowledge of the business. I think the people that use MyWot the most are good people, but there are some heavy users that really try and manipulate the rankings. Those heavy hitter's use of the site smacks of the type of mentality of sites like Buy Twitter Followers Reviews where there are ways to really manipulate rankings in the short term. As with all services online, MyWot is something that should be considered, but shouldn't be the end-all-be-all final point of anybody's research online.

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  8. This site is nothing but a scam to get you to buy a badge. They contacted me about my websites bad rating! And told me if I bought a badge for my site my rating would improve. Well morons I have no websites!!

    http://www.affhelper.com/mywot-reviews-exposed/

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  9. MYWOT are scum they have fixed my site, negative comments that are not relative and have now blocked ratings and comments so its stuck. Fuck you mywot

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  10. I would like to thank you for the efforts you have made in writing this article. I am hoping the same best work from you in the future as well. In fact your creative writing abilities has inspired me to start my own BlogEngine blog now. Really the blogging is spreading its wings rapidly. Your write up is a fine example of it. reputation repair

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  11. Yea, but dude, so your website had bad reputation on WOT doesn't mean WOT is not trustworthy. What kind of logic are you using man?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I don't think you actually read the blog post. This has nothing to do with my site at all. WOT has some terrible processes that don't accommodate reformed domains or domains that have turned bad.

      Delete
  12. MyWOT is Krimenelle. NO TRUST!!!!!!!!!!!!

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  13. Wot is the most predatory site/organization online. Google should block a such abusive site which give the site's reputations in the hands of every sorts of scammers, liars and sadistic competitors. WOT TRUST = 0.

    ReplyDelete
  14. i don't trust them.
    Visit my website if you want to quit smoking with electronic cigarette.
    http://www.cigego.fr

    ReplyDelete
  15. it's not perfect, of course
    but at any times, i'd rather trust wot than you

    ReplyDelete
  16. I used to use WOT but found that the bad ratings for most sites had more to do with the raters objecting to email gathering, sales sites and almost anything to do with marketing. I tried to change the ratings by flagging commercial site with legitimate businesses but the rating never change so I gave up on them.

    Quite frankly I don't have any trust with a site which cannot change their opinion on a domain name, like Google, Trend and any number of other supposedly authoritative companies.

    I choose Anon as protection from the web bots, not because I need to hide from you.

    ReplyDelete
  17. It is a shame that WOT allows frustrated persons to rate other pages so easily and without any consequences. There are so many people outside who do not know what to do withthemselves and just try to harm others. Unfortunatelly WOT supports that!!!
    WOT can be also used by person/companies to harm in an unfair way to their competitors. WOT shall really rethink about their way of business. I am thinking of gattering as many people as possible who suffered under WOT way of rating and and we all shall sue them in the USA. Then we will see how this would end for them

    ReplyDelete
  18. Allowing teenager wannabe hackers and trolls to determine the destiny of legitimate internet businesses selling valuable services is a sad situation. Sure if a site is distributing malware or viruses then great. But is a company offers free products in exchange for building an email list of potential future interest customer then why beat it down. These power raters are idiots. They do not understand the internet economy.

    No one user should have 1000X the votes of individuals, just because he has rated more sites. The WOT folks should seriously get their shit together and fix the problems. Unitl then WOT should have a bad rating= Unsatisfactory / Poor. Anyway I am sure the fad over WOT is at an end. I trust more professional companies like norton - macafee etc

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paypal link to Wot in one of their deep pages..not good...from my one and only experience with them i'd say they take payments for good ratings. Money making venture , that is all.

      Delete
  19. My website qcdiy.com is an inspection company and a mass rating tool rated it as scam, illegal activity and some other nonsense. Please help to rate it back up. Thanks.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Similar problem here, MyWOT has us listed as 'untrusted' simply because we are a marketing company. One comment "you to telemarketing the worst sort of spam so I am going to mark your site suspicious". The two things have no relation. I cannot magically call you if you go on my site unless you give me your name and phone number.

    The seem to equate 'I don't like what these people do' with 'this site is phishing / virus ridden / mature content... Totally unfair.

    ReplyDelete
  21. WOT is kind of joke! just don't trust them!!

    ReplyDelete
  22. New Zealand Girls has just requested a WOT review - I'll let you know what happens.

    Regards,

    -Sarah

    ReplyDelete
  23. Hi, your blog content information is all about good enough to information related to online reputation.
    Thanks for sharing.we offer Protect online reputation services to high profile individuals, businesses and corporations.


    ReplyDelete
  24. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi, I removed your comment because it was getting a little too close to a personal attack against leofelix. I agree with you, WOT is a total scam, but I don't think it's the result of any single person. The whole system is flawed.

      I apologize for not addressing this comment earlier, it was just brought to my attention. Also, I don't actively maintain this blog anymore as evidenced by the mountain of spam messages I just removed.

      I would have preferred to keep your comment and just remove the personal bits about leofelix but I couldn't find that option in blogger's admin panel.

      Again, I apologize and hope you understand.

      Delete
  25. WOT is really not trustable.You have shared great experience. I will definitely take care of it in future.

    ReplyDelete
  26. WOT is not trustable. A bad comment from one of their members are going to be there for life. People is who rate and in most of the cases they don't what are they doing.

    Also if you request an evaluation, good luck, probably their users think they are like God, and they can ask and request anything they consider.

    WOT doesn't protect to anybody, their information is really bad an not accurate.

    ReplyDelete
  27. DO NOT ASK FOR A RATING ON MYWOT. The Web of Trust does not seem to protect people from dangerous sites but rather seems to have a forum with a few anonymous trolls who want to censor the web to say the things they want the web to say. In my opinion the internet already does this work really well. Online scams, untrustworthy links, and unreliable web stores are already outed in forums and with word of month in other communities across the web.

    WOT in comparison looks to others like censorship on the web. One small group of peoples' opinion over the majority.

    My site was labeled as one that scams people out of money. I'm one of the most successful online instructors on Udemy the market leading online learning site. I have 65,000 students who have taken my course would disagree with you and they have voluntarily posted over 700 positive reviews. This is the community's opinion.

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  28. I have a new website that has a red safety rating in all categories. I was soooo shocked to see that! I've never even had a speeding ticket in my whole life! I've always been a lady, a role model citizen and 100% trustworthy. I was crushed when I saw the red... I don't deserve it. I'm positive it's providing false information... I'm one of the victims.

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  29. I agree with all, they think that they(WOT)know what they are doing and they have no clue. http://www.arcticstartup.com/article/google-policy-changes-to-disallow-web-of-trust-ratings-on-sponsored-links

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  30. They can't be found on BBB

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  31. WOT is a bunch of crap. They have no clue what they are doing. I hate them - they should be banned forever from the whole internet!!!

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  32. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  33. MyWot is a Spyware and a Malware
    https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1314332

    ReplyDelete
  34. I hate WOT !!! Because of him my site has a very bad reputation now.
    I suggest evaluating the WOT App negatively on the Play Store and other sites, in order to ban it from the Web or maybe even force them to improve their services.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks for your review
      you are right, let us fight fire with fire

      Delete
  35. Useless Silly Service
    I just want to know who appointed MYWOT to judge and evaluate others and gave them the right and authority to play with the reputation of honest sites. I have been running my creative graphics business for 22 years and I have over 400 satisfied clients. Those idiots at MYWOT gave me a rating of 12/100.
    Why most SEO analysis tools trust that MYWOT are fair?
    I contacted them and they replied with all sort of nonsense.

    ReplyDelete
  36. It's strange to see this crap of a project still alive and kicking, with even WebAnalysis providing the data. I guess there is still the need for it from the less knowledgeable Internet users.

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  37. Well, thanks for the information. It's really informative. Keep on sharing such posts.

    ReplyDelete