question on necessity

[pogo2]

hi. i'm running avast free AV, and it has the core shield called web shield. does the avast browser extension offer any additional benefits over avast free AV?
-as far as i can see, the extension doesn't scan downloads, but does add safe checkmarks on search engine searches. but i think a malicious website would be blocked by the AV anyway. so is the browser extension necessary?

thanks

[DavidR]

The idea is to prevent you visiting the suspect site in the first place, it isn't designed to scan.  There are many sites trying to get you to click there link and that would certainly include scammers, etc.

I no longer use it after a short trial when it was first introduced.  If it were to scan all the returns in a search, can you imaging how long that might take.

The Web Shield is the Primary defence against malware on the web on sites that you choose to visit.

[pogo2]

yes, i figured the extension would compare your web destination to a url blocklist or something, and block a bad site.

in the avast webshield, it says: "blocks web attacks and unsafe downloads". that could be done with the same url blocklist. though, it seems more likely that it actually scans downloads, but it is a little unclear as to whether the webshield also utilizes the same url blocklist as the extension (thereby making the extension redundant)?

so does the webshield also incorporate, additionally to it's other protections, the same mechanisms (url blocklists etc) found in the extension?

thanks

[DavidR]

The avast browser extension will essentially have a data base of suspects, etc., most likely actually coming form other sources (the antivirus side in the form of the Web Shield and other sources).  It isn't scanning the website in real time, that is where the Web Shield comes in.

The Web Shield is a live scan the web site content and external links, some  information/data of prior web shields scans may be included in the avast browser extension database.
 
If you download something from that site, pages to display in your browser and or files you seek to download, that will be scanned by the Web Shield and possibly also the File System Shield.

The avast browser extension, is for me not a patch on the live scans of the antivirus shields.  Yes it may prevent you visiting a site the avast browser extension considers suspect.

Just have a look at the numbers items in the list of search and then just how many actually have a tag from the avast browser extension.  I hope you are getting the idea that the avast browser extension isn't a replacement/patch on the Full Antivirus product.