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.

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This is from earlier this week, but you need to read it if you haven’t: Slate’s Farhad Manjoo explains why restaurant sites suck.

I spend lots of time patrolling the Net for sites that can help me with my life. Some are pinpointed to something I might need right away, like a way to get the phone number of a company. Others are spots I know I’ll need someday, such as instructions for recovering a ring from a drainpipe or how to wrap an extension cord like a pro.

I’ve got a stack of these places for you; some may hit your nail on the head, so to speak; others won’t do a thing for you.

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As I quietly lamented (or at least noted) the impending death of GeoCities today, I wanted to double-check my memory that it was once one of the very largest sites on the Web. Yup–ten years ago, in April 1999, Web measurement company Media Metrix rated it as the sixth largest online property. Which got me to wondering: How many of 1999′s Web giants remain gigantic today–assuming they still exist at all?

That’s a relatively easy question to answer, since the Media Metrix report (which is now conducted by ComScore) still comes out monthly. In fact, Comscore released the numbers for March 2009 yesterday. So I did a comparison between the April 1999 report and the March 2009 one. Are you stunned to learn that more companies fell off the top 15 than stayed on it, and that some of 2009′s biggest properties didn’t exist at all in 1999?

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