Celebrating 10 Great Years of WOT and Our Wonderful Community

10 years ago today, MyWOT was born with one main purpose – to make the web safe for all users. Today we can say that MyWOT managed to fulfill this purpose for the hundreds of millions of users that installed and relied on MyWOT for their safe browsing over the past decade.

MyWOT was first launched on September 26, 2006. About 3 years after, we had 10 million installs and 1 million registered users. By November 2013, 100 million users installed MyWOT, and since then, it’s downloads surpassed 140,000,000 users, with tens of millions of registered users from around the world, helping make the web a safer place.

When this journey first started, it was hard to imagine where MyWOT would end up. 10 years on and we have an active and engaged community that helps us create a safer web environment. It’s thanks to this amazing community that MyWOT is where it is today, able to provide a safety net to so many of MyWOT’s users around the globe.

Since MyWOT is largely powered by its users and community, we couldn’t imagine celebrating our 10th anniversary without putting them in the spotlight. So we went ahead and interviewed several of our most dedicated and active members. We received so many amazing responses and chose 10 to share with you here!

 

Kraftwerk, a member since 2009

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: I received the wrong item from an online merchant where I’ve made a purchase. The merchant didn’t care and I couldn’t do much. I decided to share my experience so that at least I could prevent other from becoming a victim. That’s how I found Web of Trust.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: It differs from day to day, depending on how much time I have and how long it takes me to investigate a site. Very often, scammers aren’t easy to spot, so it takes time to expose them.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: I consider it extremely unfair to scam, rob or hurt innocent people in any way. Mywot gives me the chance to help a bit to prevent this.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I know there’s much to improve, but at the moment i am pretty happy with Mywot the way it is. If all runs well, I am fine 🙂 Although protection against manipulation, for example, has always to be improved. Since scammers always try to trick. But as I said, I can’t name any major problem.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Dear Mywot, I can remember when we first met. You were so young and small. But you have grown so much and changed a lot. You are still a great and useful tool for so many people and I am happy that you exist. I’m grateful for those who created and manage you. I wish you a long life and please grow much more. Stay useful, fair and uncorrupted as you are.

 

ScamKiller73, a user since 2010 and an active member since 2014

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: Initially I read about WOT on the Internet, but later on some friends of mine recommended it for me.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: Rather often and as much as possible.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: I want to help to people avoid scams and give them enough warning so that they can stay protected when using the Internet.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: Continue creating tools for web protection for protection against the downloading of malicious software and viruses.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: I wish WOT further development, hope to see many more new features.

 

DestinationTruth, active member since 2009

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: Through the Firefox add on store

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: Not often any more. Though had been Platinum three times!

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A:  I like having a significant role in improving the safety of the internet.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A:  A private section for invited members to discuss sites before rating, out of public eye.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Congratulations! I hope the next ten are even more productive.

 

Matiks, active member since 2009

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: I’m a website owner and I discovered MyWOT when seeing rating for my site.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: Every day.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: I like the fact that I help make the web a safer place.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I’d love an option to export site ratings to XML or CSV.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: MyWOT has been brings together people with different skills and from different places in the world for 10 years now, with only one common goal to connect them: Make the web a safer place. Thanks and Happy birthday MyWOT!

 

MarkGles, active member since 2011

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: It was suggested to me as an improvement on McAfee Site Advisor.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: 6 Days a week..

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: I feel it’s an important job to help provide warnings against scams, frauds, fakes and generally dangerous sites.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I’d like to see more mass rating tools so I can increase my rating rate.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Thanks for all the phish! 😉

 

Super Hero, active member since 2009

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: At Mozilla, I tried two other tools before, but I did not find them to be honest on their ratings

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: Up until recently it was daily, with about 20 sites a day in average. It’s been slower lately due to personal issues, but I hope to get back on track in a few months.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: I once fell for a phish spam asking me to give information about my eBay/PayPal account, thank God I was able to contact my bank that started an investigation. They found it was a couple of Australian students that ended up being expelled. Since I got lucky, I felt that I want to help make sure no one else will have to go through what I have. I found that WOT was the best tool for that. It protects me and at the same time allows me to warn others about risky sites.

I think owners of commercial sites are beginning to wake up and realize that by receiving a high trust score by the MyWOT community, they can reach more customers. It’s a win win situation.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I think WOT should work closer with site owners and offer tips for how to get a higher trust score from the community. This can be an amazing income source for WOT. I smile as I remember that at the age of ten I was already “working” with my father but not earning any money. By the age of twelve I started getting paid too 🙂 It’s time for WOT to get the opportunity to earn a living and I’d like to see any feature that supports this since I want to see WOT continue to exist in the coming years.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Happy ten, WOT! We are the best, but we have just begun.

 

HL189AT, active member since 2010

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: After experiencing several spam attacks, it pushed me to look for solutions. That’s how I came across MyWOT.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: During the spam attacks I’ve encountered between 2011 and 2014, I think I rated over 1000 sites a month, a hellish but important work. These days I rarely score more than 50 sites a month.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A:  I hate spam and bad user experience, like forced ads. On the other hand, I believe good sites should be rewarded. MyWOT is a great tool to warn about the bad and reward the good.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: An adblocker under the MyWOT brand would be great.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Happy birthday MyWOT. I wish you a long life 🙂

 

Drsumit, active member since 2013

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: I discovered WOT accidentally after searching world of tanks 🙂

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: I rate sites everyday though I don’t necessarily comment on each one.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A:  I like the fact that I take an active part in making the web safer for everyone.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I’d love to know when a site’s ownership changed because I believe that a new owner means the site needs to be reevaluated.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: HAPPY BIRTHDAY WOT! You’ve been serving the Net community for 10 long years now. You have grown by leaps and bounds – keep growing as the world needs you. My best wishes for a year filled with security, safety and no scams.

 

A440, active member since 2010

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: I bumped into by accident.

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: I rate several times a week.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A:  I see it as me simply adding to a collective effort of tagging bad sites and offenders, as well as report on sites that are actually safe and useful.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: It would be interesting to see features related to Google search manipulation, since I see this as a form of scams.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Happy birthday MyWOT!

 

MysteryFCM, active member since 2013

Q: How did you first come across MyWOT?

A: I can’t recall now…

Q: How often do you rate sites?

A: Whenever I bump into very dangerous sites.

Q: What’s your motivation for rating and reviewing sites?

A: Protecting web users is important to me.

Q: If you could add one feature to MyWOT, what would it be?

A: I’d like to see MyWOT support Windows phones and multiple machines per account.

Q: What would you write in MyWOT’s birthday card?

A: Happy birthday to one of the most underrated user protection tools!

 

We’d like to thank the many community members that spent time answering our questions. We wish we could have published all of them here. Our second decade is beginning with a lot of love, support and appreciation and we hope to continue serve the web community with more powerful tools that will help protect their web browsing and assure an overall positive experience.