Technologizer » StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon Gets Slightly Less Stumbly

Harry McCracken — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 05:00:21 +0000

StumbleUpon, the venerable service for finding cool Web sites that has always emphasized serendipity over structure, is unveiling a major makeover tonight. The basic idea remains the same: You can find interesting sites, one after another, by pressing a Stumble button (and can recommend sites you like so other folks stumble upon them). But the StumbleUpon site and Web-based toolbar (now called the StumbleBar) have a new logo and a fresh coat of paint, and some new features make it easier to use StumbleUpon to wander around the Web in a slightly more organized fashion.

The service already had an “Explore an Interest” search option that let you enter a keyword and then stumble through sites that related to it. Now it’s much more prominent–it’s part of the StumbleBar, which it wasn’t before–thereby encouraging you to focus your stumbling if you choose. And the list of interests on the StumbleUpon home page is more prominent,

StumbleUpon has also signed up a bunch of media companies and other organizations–from Funny or Die and the CNN to GE and Campbell’s–to create 250 channels, which are feeds of their content. You can follow a channel, then stumble around it, letting you wander randomly in one particular site.

As always, what makes StumbleUpon interesting isn’t StumbleUpon: It’s the sites it leads to, which are quirky, unpredictable, and, much of the time, really neat. That hasn’t changed, and it remains mighty appealing even if you direct your exploration a little more than you might have in the past.

The StumbleUpon folks gave me a sneak peek of the revised service, and I enjoyed what I saw. (I don’t check in on the service all that often, but when I do, it’s hard to stop stumbling.) The whole experience feels more modern, and I’ll bet StumbleUpon fans like it, as long as they can get used to the all-new look, which has little in common with the site’s old, familiar self. (The StumbleUpon mobile apps haven’t been updated yet and don’t sport the new design and all the new features, but they’ll get them at some point.)

If you check out the new version, let us know what you think.

StumbleUpon’s New iPad App is Neat, But Can We Skip the Social?

Jared Newman — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 16:59:34 +0000

StumbleUpon has always been one of my favorite iPad apps, an endless time-waster that with the press of a button sends you to seemingly random corners of the Internet. Now, it’s received a facelift.

The new app includes sorting options for photos, videos and news, along with a category view that makes it easier to find pages based on your topics of interest. StumbleUpon’s iPad app has also gained a couple of swipe-based gestures, allowing you to move forward and backward by dragging a finger across the screen.

So far, so good. But there’s one feature I could do without, and would like the option to disable: Every time you stumble to a new page, a message on top of the screen lists the username of a stranger who liked what he or she saw. Tapping the name takes you to that user’s profile, which lists age, gender and recent activity, and provides options for following that user.

That level of voyeurism crosses the creepy line for me. While it’s always been possible to look at user responses to a stumbled page, the presence of strangers is now right in your face. I view StumbleUpon as a solitary experience, so it’s unnerving to realize that random people might stumble upon my activity so easily. The activity bar also takes up real estate on the screen that might be better spent on actual web pages.

Of course, StumbleUpon doesn’t work without a social element. Your decision to like or dislike a page feeds the service’s recommendation engine, but this is as much a self-serving feature as it is a way to connect with other users, because the more you like or dislike, the better your results will be. StumbleUpon can thrive without shoving human interaction down users’ throats. I wish the iPad app included a way to stumble alone.

5Words for March 13th, 2009

Harry McCracken — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 12:27:27 +0000

Happy Friday the thirteenth, everybody!

Mozilla releases new Firefox beta.

AOL gets CEO from Google.

StumbleUpon preps a URL shortener.

Cybercriminals get down to business.

Unlimited-VoIP-and-data carrier.

New iPod Shuffle teardown photos.

A little more Pre news.

An iPhone 3.0 wish list.

Poor Woz fractures his foot.

Regimes that repress the Internet.

StumbleUpon Stumbles Upon a Toolbar-Free Experience

Harry McCracken — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 05:43:43 +0000

StumbleUpon, the addictive way to channel-surf your way across the Web by visiting seemingly random sites that other folks like, is about to get more addictive. Until now, it’s required a toolbar that let you surf sites and review and recommend ‘em (or give them a thumbs-down). But it’s announcing a new version that requires no toolbar and which lets you browse around sites at StumbeUpon.com in much the way you might explore a site like YouTube.

When you begin your Web wanderings at StumbleUpon’s site, the Web pages you visit will be framed with a purely Web-based equivalent of the StumbleUpon tools up top; unlike the Toolbar, these tools are only there when you’re Stumbling around the Web. I’m a StumbleUpon Toolbar user right now, but I like the idea of going Web-only; I’ve got too many toolbars as it is, and getting rid of the SU Toolbar will free up a few precious vertical pixels of screen real estate, and generally declutter my browser a bit.

In addition, StumbleUpon is going to work with major sites to add StumbleUpon features to their site, so you can Stumble pages with one click (just as many sites let you Digg content) and can Stumble your way around content within the site in question. The Huffington Post and HowStuffWorks are StumbleUpon’s first two partners, but it will roll these features out to other sites, including RollingStone.com and The National Geographic.

This is just a quickie post–I really want to try the new StumbleUpon for myself and tell you what I think. And I will when I can, but it doesn’t appear to be live just yet.

Until it is, here’s an image of the new StumbleUpon, provided by the company: