Security Toolbars to prevent Phishing Attacks.....

I came across this toolbar from Netcraft that tells me whether a particular website I am visiting is legitimate or not (something like a thermometer view)....

The toolbar can be obtained here.

Since I have started using it today, I cannot tell you how good or bad it will be.

Here is a research paper that talks about how effective security toolbars are....

From the abstract,

We conducted two user
studies of three security toolbars and other browser security
indicators and found them all ineffective at preventing
phishing attacks. Even though subjects were asked to pay
attention to the toolbar, many failed to look at it; others
disregarded or explained away the toolbars’ warnings if the
content of web pages looked legitimate. We found that
many subjects do not understand phishing attacks or realize
how sophisticated such attacks can be.

There is nothing new here. People are not really looking at trust indicators
provided by the browser. Only when you have a bad experience will you, start looking
for indications.... Isn't that human nature?