This article was published on February 18, 2011

Voyurl: A voyeur site to spy on browsing activity [Invites]


Voyurl: A voyeur site to spy on browsing activity [Invites]

VoyurlVoyurl is a clickstreaming service that provides users with real-time information on what sites your friends, and the Voyurl community are browsing on the web.

In case you’re new to the clickstreaming space, these types of services generally work through the use of a browser plug-in that records and posts your activity on the web. Voyurl works in the same way and its plug-in, to ease your fears, clearly displays whether or not the browser add-on is on or off.

To begin discovering, users are able to search by topics or browse through categories such as food, tech, travel etc. Each link offers a series of information including who posted it, the title of the article, when it was posted and what city the user is based in. Users have the option to build friend streams but there’s a screen that shows everyone in the community as well.

Why it’s cool: It’s an interesting way to discover new sites and there is an element of fun in regards to snooping around other people’s links. Voyurl also gives users control over privacy. In addition to the on and off switch displayed in your browser, the settings provide an option to restrict anyone from seeing your user name or location. Within the stream, users can also quickly share the link with Twitter or Facebook.

We’d like to see: A way to track stats would be a welcomed feature, and it would be cool to see how many users click on / share the links you post within the “me” screen.

spy

We had a chance to speak with Adam Leibsohn, the founder of Voyurl and he shared with us his story and a few successes he has had in the last few weeks. Leibsohn’s background is in advertising, an industry he says is ripe with marketing firms peddling dishonest user data, something that drove him to build the site he said.

..after being introduced to countless marketing technology firms that–for lack of a better term–dishonestly peddle in user data, I thought it was time for a platform that was open about its data use and put the user first.

In the short two weeks since Voyurl launched in private beta, Leibsohn tells us that Voyurl members have already shared of 550,000 links and have collectively logged or contributed to over 1.5 years of active browsing time.

Leibsohn stressed his passion for Voyurl by telling us that he’d “opted to go homeless for the past year in order to raise my own fund” referring to his journey of getting the site off the ground. Part of Leibsohn’s funding came from Kickstarter, a community that supports entrepreneurs with investors for their ideas. Back in October, Voyurl’s Kickstarter campaign was able to meet its funding goal, earning over $10,000, backed by 163 pledgers.

We’ve got invites

Voyurl is still in private beta as we’d mentioned, but we were able to snag an unlimited amount of invites for our readers. If you’d like to give it a spin, you’ll get instant access at: http://www.voyurl.com/tnw

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