NYTimes.com Most Popular Lists

NYTimes.com got a lot of press when it unveiled its redesigned web site earlier this month, most notably for its introduction of (more) broadband video, RSS feeds, a wider-body format, and a MyTimes feature that will aggregate content from across the Web. And while the the success of design itself is still up for debate in the blogosphere, there is one particular feature that I find interesting: the Most Popular column:

Here, you can see the stories that are most emailed or most blogged about on a given day, as well as the most frequently searched keywords and most popular movies (as rated by Times readers). So, in keeping with the cultural shift to social computing, the Times has taken one more step towards helping its readers see what other consumers are talking about. It's also a good read on what the Times readers are interested in.

What's more, there are narrower "Most Popular" results sets within the individual sections of the paper. So, on the Style home page I see that "Why Stars Name Babies Moxie, Moses and Apple" made the rounds big time today.

Perhaps not the most useful of information, but fun nonetheless :)