It is our pleasure to recognize the WOT community members who contribute their time, resources, efforts and enthusiasm to make the Internet a safer place for everyone. WOT is as strong as the people who participate, and we are indeed fortunate that many smart, caring individuals from around the world have chosen to join our community.

You work diligently to root out online scams, malware and rogue software so that we all may be more confident while conducting business, doing homework or just having fun on the Web, and for that, we thank you. You represent the best of WOT, and these awards are only a symbol of the gratitude we have toward you.

The WOT Top Member award goes to those members who have made a significant contribution to the progress and development of WOT. They serve the community by giving their time, knowledge and advice to help others stay safe when shopping, searching or browsing on the Web.

• Athlonite helps WOT users with problems, for example the Shield deluxe question, and actively rates numerous fake scanners, Trojans and exploits.
• BobJam is a long-time WOT member who actively participates in the WOT forum, giving advice and technical support with good humor.
• cotojo is known for his technical expertise and kind manner. Colin helps people on the WOT forums, as well as maintaining an active site of his own, Free PC Security.
• FlyAqua is helpful on the WOT forums and contributes to the WOT wiki. He often translates for and helps German language users.
• g7w is one of the most well-liked members of WOT. David is a knowledgeable about all sorts of computer issues and freely shares advice on the WOT forum. He regularly exposes untrustworthy sites and contributes to WOT wiki. He also makes cool variations of the WOT logo.
• Journeyman was active earlier in 2009. He exposed fake scanners, trojans and exploits and assisted other users with problems.
• MysteryFCM is a valuable and trusted participant of WOT. Steven is a Microsoft MVP Award winner for Consumer Security. He regularly analyizes malware on his own Ur I.T. Mate Group and hpHosts.
• phantazm acted as researcher and German language translator during the Born situation, assists WOT users on the forum and contributes to the WOT wiki.
• Rob was active earlier in 2009. He was helpful on the forum and wrote informative scorecard comments.
• sebsauvage is active on the WOT forum, helping people with problems and offering advice. He also recommends WOT on French language sites including his own, sebsauvage.net.
• soran helped former WOT user "mischaccc" during a difficult situation by visiting him at home, encouraging him and organizing legal assistance. He often translates for and helps German WOT users.
• wehaveitall is helpful to other users on the WOT forums and manages the WOT Google Group.
• Yatti420 has been with WOT since the early days. He consistently rates sites and adds comments in order to help others. He participates in the WOT forum and gives assistance to those in need.
• YoKenny is a faithful member of WOT who willingly helps members solve PC problems and rates sites with malicious activity.

Special thanks also to Codhead, Mischaccc and Nicht-Absocken for their contributions.

The WOT Scam Buster award goes to those members who have contributed in the battle for a safe Internet. They may have discovered and reported threats or scams that could do harm to others' computers, personal data and wallets, or contributed to research against cybercrime.

• BobJam helped research and uncover facts during the Born situation.
• Catcha discovered and reported a rogue download site and regularly rates fake scanners, Trojans and exploits.
• cconniejean verifies sites with malicious activity and issues with child safety.
• cotojo researches malware, exposes rogue software and helped during the Born situation.
  
• Delan Azabani is a busy student who volunteers time to exposes fake scanners, Trojans and exploits.
• difrawi_defrawy has worked hard to expose money making schemes that rip people off while promising to deliver something worthwhile.
• Frank J exposes rogue software, email hoaxes and exploits on WOT while educating readers on his own blog, TechJaws.
• g7w works endlessly rating sites that could cause havoc on innocent peoples' computers and wallets.
• LiVeRpUdLiAn932  supports and defends other WOT members from attacks and courageously continues to rate sites that he finds spreading false information.
  
• logicman conducts malware research and exposes scams and dangerous sites.
• lordpake is a long-time member of WOT who works diligently finding and rating sites that could be harmful.
• MikeWazowski conducts malware research and analysis professionally. He contributes his findings regularly to WOT's reputation database.
• MysteryFCM researches and verifies risky sites and shares his findings with WOT. He is a true warrior in the fight against Internet crime.
  
• shazza finds and researches everything from fraudulent ticket sites, sites promoting rogue software, plus removing malware and testing software.
• Spacequad helped during the Born situation.
• Tonor discovered something fishy with Global Directory of Who's Who and regularly seeks out and rates risky sites and those offering rogue software.
• Warxas exposes spammers who fill our inboxes with junk, plus he conducts research on suspicious sites.
• xxz actively rates sites and exposes spam that annoy users and pollute our inboxes.

 Special thanks to Codhead.

The WOT Publicity award goes to those members who have enthusiastically promoted WOT and safe surfing to other people. Any kind of activity could be eligible - writing on their own blog, forum, Q&A sites, social networking sites, how-to videos, through business or school contacts and or other innovative techniques.

• Evilfantasy recommends WOT in blog postings and articles on evilfantasy's blog.
• BerArt formed a WOT LinkedIn group.
• Bill Mullins has recommended WOT hundreds of times on his blog, Tech Thoughts, in articles dealing with malware or infection prevention.
• Creastery recommended WOT on his former blog WinTechpedia.
• Frank J recommends WOT frequently to readers of his blog TechJaws.
• Galaxyfox promotes WOT on his Tech Airlines blog.
• hackman2007 wrote about WOT on from Mahalo and invited hundreds of friends.
• jpvip gives advice to users on various forums on how to stay safe from bad websites. He links them to WOT and gives them a tutorial on how to install and use WOT.
• Sun88990 recommended WOT to users in Asia via boards and forums.
• xxz is also an active reviewer on Site Advisor and refers users to WOT postings in the Site Advisor forums.

Our thanks goes out to all the dedicated members of WOT who work so hard all year. We have probably missed deserving people and for that we apologize. With our growing community, it's tough to keep up with all the activity, but we want to recognize you, so please don't hesitate to inform us.

To all of you from all of us here at WOT HQ, we wish you a safe, healthy and Happy New Year!

WOT uses and benefits from one of the great tools that was created by the open source community - the popular MySQL open source database.

Some months ago, Oracle began work to acquire Sun and its MySQL database. This acquisition would result in major consolidation for the database market. The process has been stalled as the European Commission reviews concerns that the deal will reduce competitiveness between database vendors.

This week, MySQL creator Michael "Monty" Widenius kicked off a worldwide campaign to "Save MySQL." He is calling for people to sign a petition that will be given to the European Commission and the representatives of the 27 EU member states who will meet in Brussels in early January to discuss the case. The petition asks regulators to force Oracle to divest MySQL, or to make Oracle commit to a linking exception for applications that use MySQL.

We are asking our large community to join us in "Ensuring future innovation related to MySQL and safeguarding MySQL as a major competitive force."

Please add your name to the Save MySQL petition. Thank you.

Over a year ago, WOT introduced a mass rating tool for our Platinum and Gold level users. The mass rating tool is designed for multiple submissions with matching ratings and comments, and has proven to be quite handy.

Unfortunately, the tool has been abused. Specifically, some users have been copying published lists and have not double-checked for accuracy. Additionally, corrections are not made in a timely way, and previous ratings are not being reviewed. Our experienced, trusted reviewers work far too hard to validate and assess individual ratings for us to allow their work to be tainted by those with less-than-reliable processes or motives.

Beginning today, we are limiting the mass rating tool to our Platinum users. Current Gold-level members will also be able to continue using the tool, but new Gold-level members will not have access until they reach Platinum status.

WOT's goal, and that of the majority of our community, is to maintain high quality, reliable ratings so that everyone will have a safer experience while shopping, browsing and searching the Web. We appreciate your comments and suggestions.

The last day of our whirlwind trip to Silicon Valley ended on a high note at Add-on-Con 09. This conference, designed specifically for people who build and market browser add-ons, was appropriately held at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View.

It was interesting to listen to panels from Google, Mozilla, Yahoo, Opera and some leading add-on companies discussing the future of add-ons. The question de jour was "Do add-ons need a market place?," and Mozilla surprised the audience by announcing that they will "probably" open a marketplace for Firefox add-ons sometime next year. Justin Scott, Mozilla's add-on ninja, didn't add any details, but he requested that Mozilla users give them some feedback on the idea.

On the developer side, Google demoed their extension development interface and Mozilla talked about the future of Mozilla Lab's Jetpack and Firefox Mobile.

A no-show from the sick Internet Explorer representative gave WOT an unexpected opportunity to demo. I had 5 minutes to show n' tell Web of Trust to a room full of other add-on developers and marketers. After the demos were over, several people from well-known companies introduced themselves. Maybe we can get something going with them...more on that later.

So now we are back home at WOT HQ, recovering from jet lag and excitedly plastering our laptops with the stickers we got from everyone. A big thanks to Mozilla, Internet Explorer 8, Google Chrome and OneRiot for a great day. We look forward to Add-on-Con 2010.

Sitting in front of a giant HD screen watching an NFL game while noshing on fresh tacos was more like being in a sports bar than one of the world's successful browser companies. Mozilla HQ is one of the most welcoming places of business that I have ever visited. The creativity and enthusiasm is palpable.

Sami and I were greeted by Nick Nguyen, Director of add-ons, and Justin Scott, Add-on ninja. Even though they were hosting world-wide Mozilla employees for a sort of homecoming week, plus having 40-odd people show up for tonight's workshop in an hour, they sat down with us to discuss WOT and the future of add-ons. We also got an update on Fennec, Mozilla's mobile browser. Very exciting stuff.

WOT is a recommended add-on. We would appreciate WOT users adding a comment. Visit the WOT add-on for Firefox page. Thanks!

Sami and I had the pleasure of attending the Google Chrome Extensions event at the Googleplex in Mountain View tonight. The browser add-ons beta launched yesterday with about 300 extensions. During the presentation, Erik and Aaron, software engineers from the Chrome team, showed us how easy it is to build a working extension in about 5 minutes. Erik said that the number of extensions was already up to 480, and they expected to reach 500 tonight.

WOT is available for Chrome beta. You can download it from Google Chrome Extensions. Please rate it and leave a comment too. Thanks!