Have you ever sat there, staring at your Facebook stream, Twitter page or Google+ account and thought – ‘I wonder how long I actually spend on this web site?’ You know you have.
We know we sure have, and we’re equally sure the results would be a little scary for all concerned.
Voyurl started out on its life as a plugin that tracked your internet usage, and shared it amongst your friends, great way to tell your social circle how much you slack off. The grand idea here was that your social group would recommend sites to visit, based on the kinds of sites you already frequently visit.
While Voyurl wasn’t the only company to do this, the whole idea found itself face to face with one glaring problem – people are petrified of their privacy being violated. Do you really want people knowing just how much time you spend on every website, as well as the URL to be shared for their delectation?
No, probably not and we wouldn’t recommend doing that as well. Think about it, would you let others know what you do online? Sounds fishy eh?
Which is why Voyurl has shifted its approach slightly, and now no-longer shares the potentially embarrassing information with anyone other than itself. Click data, time spent hovering over things with the mouse and more are all used to help offer better web browsing suggestions.
While the new approach still uses the same data, the information is now used by the company to make its own recommendations, again based on your surfing patterns. It’s a subtle difference, but one that we envisage many will be much more comfortable with.
A byproduct of all this tracking is a report that shows users just how much time they spend on all their favorite websites, which can make for some interesting reading.
While Voyurl is currently in beta, the great chaps over at Mashable have kindly provided an ‘in’ for those who just can’t get enough of those lovely statistics and also like the idea of being recommended even more web sites to spend their valuable time on. Try out the beta using this link.
We’re not sure we have enough time for the sites we visit now, let along any new ones Voyurl may kick up for us!
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