OPINION — So many websites, so little time.

Useful. Fun. So many websites fit that description. Then there are the useless websites, the ones that defy description. The sites that you’re not really sure what they are even after you’ve visited them.

Useful website

Is this website safe?

Symantec’s Norton products have been the gold standard for many years in discovering viruses, malware and threats to your computer. Now they have brought out a new tool, a tool that you can make sure a website is safe before you go to it.

Simply type or paste in the website you wish to check. Norton Safe Web will tell you if the site has any problems or if it’s totally safe and secure.

There are also extensions available for your browser that will check upon entering any site and block a website that is dodgy or dangerous. Those tools can slow the browser process way down. The extensions are not malware or viruses in any way.

Fun website

Wayback machine

Those who are a bit older and nostalgic will remember the Rocky and Bullwinkle show. One of the vignettes was Peabody’s Improbable History. Mr. Peabody, of course, was a genius dog who adopted a boy, Sherman.

Mr. Peabody invented a fantastic time machine he called the WABAC (pronounced way-back) machine. Now the internet has its own Wayback machine.

You can visit websites from the past and see what they looked like at various dates. Here is what Google looked like on Dec. 2, 1998. It’s also a great tool if the website that had information you needed is now defunct. The Wayback machine will probably have it.

Useless website

Make everything OK

It’s one of those days. Nothing is going right. The boss is on your back. Your spouse has called and left a message, “we need to talk.” The principal called, telling you your son has been suspended. And now your cellphone is acting up.

Here’s your panacea. A button on the web that claims to “make everything OK.”

Go ahead. Move your mouse over to the button. It will be OK. We promise. And that’s all we’re going to say. Come on, click on it.

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Ed. note: St. George News experienced no problems as a result of visiting the websites mentioned in this “Caught in the web” series; nonetheless, users are advised to take their own precautions visiting any website to ensure no damage to computer or data occurs.

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