StumbleUpon

What is StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon[1] is an online search engine that empowers users to find and access amazing content of the Internet that would otherwise be difficult to find. Once a user has created a free StumbleUpon profile all they have to do is hit the “Stumble” button in the middle of the tool bar and they will be taken to interesting websites. StumbleUpon utilizes collaborative filtering[2] to generate pages that are personalized to user’s personal interests. This method of personalization uses a combination of programed software and human input to find websites that users will like, much the same way that Netflix[3] finds movie recommendations for their users. Users can either like of dislike pages so the more they Stumble and rate pages, the better StumbleUpon can predict what to show next. Today StumbleUpon has over 25 million active users and well over 200 million websites for users to connect with.

StumbleUpon as a Social Media Tool

StumbleUpon is a very powerful online social network that has many functions that promote collaboration and communication. Users can write their thoughts and opinions down about websites so that other Stumblers can read them. Users can also follow the interests of other users as well as link to other social Networks in order to share. StumbleUpon users can link with Facebook[4], Twitter, LinkedIn, and other social networks in order to share with their discoveries and ideas. StumbleUpon is a huge network of exciting information and opportunity but what makes it truly powerful is its ability to link and share with social media network giants such as Facebook.

The Stumble Toolbar

One of the great aspects of StumbleUpon is its simplicity. The only controls that users need to operate the search engine can be found in the toolbar at the top of the browser window. The button on the far left of the toolbar allows users to add webpages to personal lists for later reference. The next button is for users to add comments about website for other users to read. Just next to the comment button there links for sharing information with Facebook, Twitter, and other networks. To the right of those four buttons there is a drop down menu where users can choose special interest for Stumblers to focus their search on. Stumblers can search randomly or use the menu focus on art, videos, outdoors, photography, food, science, extreme sports, Internet tools, mythology, books, humor, and much more. The middle of the tool bar has a big orange button that says, “Stumble,” this button takes users to explore new pages. Two buttons depicting pictures of a thumbs up and a thumbs down let users to tell the search engine what websites they like and dislike. The search engine will use this information to further personalize user profiles and display more pages that a user will like and less that they wont like. Finally the button on the far right of the tool bar with a picture of a little house will take users to their homepage where they can find recommended pages.

History

Cofounders Garret Camp[5], Geoff Smith, Justin LeFrance and Eric Boyde launched StumbleUpon in November of 2002 in Calgary Canada[6] The website took off and soon had almost a million users stumbling through the Internet. StumbleUpon was moved to San Francisco where it caught the attention of major Internet operatives such as Google[www.google.com] and Mozilla[7]. The owners of StumbleUpon sold the company to ebay[8] in may of 2007 and later bought it back in 2009, it is now an independent company supported by investors.

References

https://www.stumbleupon.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StumbleUpon http://www.stumbleupon.com/about http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/social-networking/networks/stumbleupon.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/StumbleUpon