Browse Safely & Avoid Viruses & Spyware With HHOTT
I’m a man of many browsers. I’ve tried pretty much all of them. Internet Explorer, Opera, Safari, Firefox, Chrome and so on. Even the original Mozilla browser is on the list.
All of these are great browsers, and they stand out for different reasons. Different features and different ways of browsing. However, although content has changed drastically throughout the years, the basic principles of browsing has remained pretty much the same.
HHOTT View means to change all that. It’s a plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer.
HHOTT View
HHOTT View gives us fast and safe surfing, ideal for those paranoid folk out there, and perfect for those without a firewall (software like that tends to irritate me more than viruses do).
So How Does It Work?
The concept can be divided up into two parts; the warning icons and the preview browsing.
Warning Icons
Each and every link will be provided with a small warning icon when you hover over them. These will tell you if the link is safe or not.
There are four possible icons.
The green icon indicates a safe link. You ought to be able to visit the other side without harm done.
The red icon indicates an unsafe link. The site might contain viruses and spyware. It’s highly advised not to proceed.
The grey icon can indicate a number of things, but all comes down to the fact that there is insufficient information available. This can be because of the site in question, there are still some sites that need to be reviewed, or because the service is unavailable due to update or program failure.
The blue icon indicates that the safe browsing feature is currently turned off. How to enable it is explained below on the page.
Preview Browser
Now, if you want to know exactly what’s behind the link, you can use the preview browser.
Hover over the warning icon to trigger a pop-up with the contents of the link. This way you can view what’s on the other site without needing to browse there. You won’t even have to leave your current page!
This pop-up interacts just like a normal browser, and will allow basic surfing. You can scroll through the pages, click through to other pages, watch embedded media, and even save favourites! The only things that are missing in my opinion are the warning icons and further page pop-ups.
Installing HHOTT View
You can download the HHOTT View installer from this page here. This one works for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. After choosing your language and running the installer, you need to enable the HHOTT View toolbar in your browser.
To do so, click with your right mouse in the toolbar area, and make sure that HHOTTView is checked.
Sometimes the HHOTT toolbar won’t be available until you restart your browser or – in drastic cases – your computer.
Using the toolbar, you can also adjust the settings of the HHOTT View plugin, like enabling or disabling the safe browsing feature.
HHOTT View is a really great plugin that can aid you in browsing both quicker and safer. If you’re up for a new way of browsing, you must definitely give it a try.
(By) Simon is a student and tech enthusiast from Belgium. On MakeUseOf, he's the primary gaming writer and eBook editor. Check Simon out @ http://meme.yahoo.com/slangen/
Some anti-virus programs like AVG have link scanners that work on google search results for example. But the preview option here looks nice.
Simon, it doesn’t look like it’s Firefox compatible yet. Both according to the add-on page and according to the FAQ.
That’s exactly what I thought!! In fact, I even tested it with Internet Explorer.
However, when I rebooted my system today, I noticed that it had also been installed in firefox!
I’ve also written a mail to the boys and girls at HHOTT about it.
Just to be clear: It DOES work on Firefox!
You’re right. Maybe they have found it’s not as affective or something?
(Comments wont nest below this level)Intriguing concept.. I like the idea but got dudes about if it is actually usefull. After reading its FAQ some nice ideas crossed my mind: would be really usefull if the “view window” would be sandboxed or with extra security features, in the case that after the caution red icon I would like to go to the link anyway but with some precautions…
I have used WOT (Web Of Trust) FireFox Extension for over a year.
WOT does all this perfectly too. WOT is very powerful and has undergone numerous revisions. Check out https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3456
I am happy to hear about HHOTT though because IE was missing a WOT-like plugin.
Since IE is highly vulnerable, IE needed this.
Thank you for the write-up.
Thanks for the nice writeup. Yes, we have been quietly beta testing the FF support for a few months. We will officially announce it and update our website in a few weeks. Yes, we are thinking about sandboxing the preview window which is already pretty clean and safe now without the hooking of unknown/bad DLLs or activeX.
Mcafee SiteAdvisor has proven to be a very effective tool that does the same thing. I formerly used WOT, but found that it placed too many warnings on sites that were perfectly safe. Additionally, it works with both Firefox and IE without a hitch. It supplies a safety icon for search results for yahoo, google, live and more. I would recommend not installing the search function that they offer as an option.
I am currently and have been using Web Of Trust (WOT) for quite some time. Since WOT is user participation it is not going to be perfect, however the input factor from such a large audience should improve the accuracy over time. Although not perfect, I will say that WOT and Norton 360 agree about 90% of the time. Either the accuracy of WOT is pretty good or Norton 360 has the same flaws as WOT.
I am always looking for a better way to do things, so I will give this a try. Thanks for the article.
Awesome Tip.I love this website .Good Job !!!
Cooliris add-on in Firefox has a preview feature now?
Does anybody know if the preview view window is always safe?
Also, can HOTT and CoolIris co-exist in Firefox ?
Thanks
The HHOTT developers said above that they’re considering a sandbox preview, but until then the preview function isn’t completely sage – like RanMan also pointed out.
You can always use the ’safe browsing’ feature, but disable the previews in the HHOTT toolbar if you want to be absolutely safe.
Hi Paul,
Your first question seems to be debated. There are many software products, addons, extensions,etc. that utilize a preview window in one form or another. With my limited experience most of them claim there is no guarantee that the preview is safe once you have “hovered” over it because essentially you have enabled the link. Such as in the Firefox Google Preview extension that a hover-over brings the image to full size without having to click on the image. A few claim their product is safe even if you do hover over it because only the link to the image is opened, not a page that may contain something malicious hidden from the users view. I think it is a question that just needs to be asked with each different product.
Regarding your second question. I just tested HHOTT with Firefox v3.0.5 with the Coolris extension and each seems to work just fine.
Hope this helps.
Firefox with NoScript…no additional apps running, and it’s bulletproof.
Safety is only half the story of HHOTT View. Its fast, clickless browsing feature for IE/FF is the other half. We believe both are unique and useful. Please give both a try. We would love to hear your comments. Thanks!
I am using WOT + AVG, they offer the same thing. There is no preview option though.
I’ve been using HHOTT for about a week now and I really like it. I have noticed some things I would like improved and some features added, but overall I am pleased with it.
Pros – More than just a preview of the web page when you hover over the tiny green icon, which by the way loads extremely fast, it is a working window.
Cons – While navigating in the HHOTT Window none of my Firefox 3 features work, so I close the Window and then open another Firefox tab and continue working.
The Con is not a big enough deal to stop using HHOTT, but it would nice if it at least had mouse gestures.
The testing continues . . .
RanMan
Hello !
Just a question : “Does this HHOTT work with
CAMINO Browser ?
Regards
Steve
Don’t known for sure, but based upon an email discussion with HHOTT I got the impression it will work with Titan and Gecko powered browsers.
However, I would try this link to find out for sure.
http://www.hhott.com/en/community.htm
Good Luck.
RanMan
Thank you RanMan !
Steve