De.licio.us + Google Web History = Hooeey

Hooeey is a new bookmarking and tracking service for your browsing habits. You install a small toolbar in your browser, and it will quietly keep tabs on all your tabs, including which sites you're going to, how long you're staying at each one, and when you're doing it. At the same time, Hooeey adds a social networking layer, letting you share specific sites with others, both on the Hooeey network, and other, larger social bookmarking services like Del.icio.us and Reddit. The goal is to let you centralize your favorites, and make them easier to share with others, while combining some facets of other free tracking services like Google Web History to let you see which services you're visiting the most.

If this entire concept sounds familiar, there's also the now defunct Atten.TV, which recorded people's Web browsing as it happened, so it could be shared with others. An idea we thought was a little too invasive, and apparently users did, too.

So why would you install something like this? The idea behind Hooeey is combining what is usually two separate services into one. The actual tracking function is likely already done in your browser, but in this case is better equated to Google Web History, because your history is stored online instead of your local browser installation. Hooeey also has another leg up on your browser's history file because it works with both platforms, meaning if you're using Internet Explorer and Firefox, your history from both browsers will be recorded in the same space.

To help you track all this data, Hooeey has a built-in analytics service which will break down your browsing habits with all sorts of handy charts and graphs. You can then go in and hand pick whatever sites you want for tagging and sharing. Maybe the most interesting feature to come out of this is the WebTour, which takes your hand-picked links and turns them into slide shows of your links. You can annotate each and rearrange each site's order, as well as theme it with a background feed. The concept is a lot like Diigo's recently launched Webslides feature, although a little less feature-rich.

I'm both fascinated and terrified of this idea, as I'm already pretty freaked out by some of the tracking initiatives popping up on the Web, including YouTube's now watching and public history features. The good news about Hooeey is that there's a decent amount of work involved in setting it up, yet it's really simple to toggle the tracking feature on and off. If you're a Google Web History user looking for a little bit more versatility with your data, Hooeey is definitely worth a look. Considering you can use both services at the same time, it might make for an interesting head-to-head after a month of use.