Disapointing 'safe-browsing' software from Finjan

Finjan Secure Browsing is meant to check websites to make sure they are safe to browse. Unfortunately, it doesn't do its job very well, which makes using it a somewhat arduous task.

Finjan's website says that this browser add-on is compatible with either Firefox or Internet Explorer. However, when we tried to install it on Firefox, it wouldn't run on our version (3.6.13) as it wasn't compatible. But installing the download for Internet Explorer did work and was easy enough to install and get working.

For a piece of software that is meant to make browsing the web safer, Finjan doesn't make things easy. The idea is that links on things like search results, emails and websites are flagged up as being either 'safe' or 'unsafe' (by means of a green tick or a red cross).

We tried using it on a number of websites (Google, Yahoo, etc.) and while it did indeed show nice green ticks next to everything, it took well over 10 seconds to scan each page of search results, which is far too slow.

It also 'green ticked' websites that other similar security programs (such as the vastly superior McAfee Site Advisor, reviewed here) flagged up as being potentially unsafe, which was a concern. Another disappointment came when we tried to use the software on Microsoft's Bing search engine only to find it didn't work at all. No green ticks or any other indicators – the program just didn't appear.

All things considered, this software is hampered by some pretty major flaws, so although it may be free, we can't recommend it.

Please note: the download link included here is for Internet Explorer only.