The Voyeur web

WebWord has some fine new articles, including one about The Voyeur Web.

"You might not believe me, but I know what other people are thinking. I can't read minds of course but I can observe people. I know where they are going, what they are searching for, what they email other people, and what they link to. I'm not joking. By the end of this article you will be a mind reader too. You won't know why they are doing what they are doing, but at least you'll be able to watch their behavior. You'll know what they are doing....

I am not saying that I spy on people. Instead, I am saying that several web tools are mature enough that anyone with a little effort can understand the collective web."

John then goes on to highlight sites such as Yahoo Most Emailed Content, Yahoo Buzz Index, Google Zeitgeist, and other tools that I've already mentioned in the past. I would add to the 25 Most E-mailed Articles from the New York Times. It's too bad they don't provide an RSS feed for that service, because I would add it to my aggregator lickety-split. Another missed opportunity, especially since the NYT is already partnering with Radio (yeah, I know it's not open to everyone, but it would be a start).

Sure, I could try to scrape it with Stapler or RssDistiller, but I'm starting to feel like I'll be creating feeds for half of the freaking web at this rate. It would help if at least the big-time publishers realized that they would be providing a valuable service if they created the channels themselves.