Where to find it: Stumble upon
– www.stumbleupon.com
Who runs the site: Garret Camp and Geoff Smith founded the
company, and both have backgrounds working with computers and
software. They started designing and developing stumbleupon.com in
2001. In 2003, eBay acquired the company and set Michael Buhr up as
the general manager.
Who is likely to use the site: Internet junkies who want to
discover the rare corners of the Web
– and from the number of members listed on the site, there seem
to be a lot of them out there. More than 5 million users are
registered at the site. The way it works is that users type in a
topic and then links turn up for anything from a blog to a personal
homepage that has been recommended by si
milar users.
Where to find it: Stumble upon – www.stumbleupon.com
Who runs the site: Garret Camp and Geoff Smith founded the company, and both have backgrounds working with computers and software. They started designing and developing stumbleupon.com in 2001. In 2003, eBay acquired the company and set Michael Buhr up as the general manager.
Who is likely to use the site: Internet junkies who want to discover the rare corners of the Web – and from the number of members listed on the site, there seem to be a lot of them out there. More than 5 million users are registered at the site. The way it works is that users type in a topic and then links turn up for anything from a blog to a personal homepage that has been recommended by similar users.
Pros: To use the site completely, registration is required. Users can get a sample by scrolling to the bottom of the main page and clicking on the popular topics. A click on videogames reveals the profiles of other users who are interested in video games as well as a variety of game-related sites. Some are more relevant than others.
Some of the items that turned up include the webtender, which offers drinking games; a link for online games; and a puzzles page. Under each link is a short review by a user who liked the site.
This site is not for those who are looking for something specific – Google and Yahoo are more likely to return items – but this site is great for someone who has some free time and just wants to find interesting sites to visit. The cool thing about it is the interaction users have in recommending sites to each other and influencing where sites show up in a “stumble.”
Cons: Stumbleupon probably isn’t the place to go to find information for a research paper and it seems like it could be as big a time suck as sites such as Facebook and MySpace.
