McAfee Snaps Up SiteAdvisor

Only a few months after its initial launch SiteAdvisor has been acquired by McAfee. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

SiteAdvisor uses a simple rating system to help people identify sites that are likely to be involved with spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser-based attacks, phishing, online fraud and identity theft. The service uses a combined approach in revealing information about Web sites, including integration with Google, Yahoo!, and MSN search engines that shows a rating next to each search result and a browser add-on that gives  a color-coded visual cue. People can also send feedback to SiteAdvisor to help rate sites that SiteAdvisor might not already be aware of.

"SiteAdvisor’s patent-pending technology strongly complements McAfee's existing solutions, and we clearly share the same philosophy on consumer protection," said Bill Kerrigan, executive vice president of McAfee Consumer.

"In addition to the consumer benefits, SiteAdvisor offers great potential for our enterprise solutions as well,” said George Heron, vice president and chief scientist at McAfee. "This unique technology adds another dimension of strength and value to McAfee’s threat databases and will offer a significant corporate benefit."