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8 Nov 2007

StumbleUpon, late to the party

filed under: journal  :: blogging  :: interweb

stumbleupon.jpegMy online life has evolved quite a bit, but I started out on the interweb blogging- and writing-wise being primarily a techie type, writing about web design, JavaScript and stuff of that nature. I don't do that much any more for various reasons, and I don't follow those types of sites much any more either except for a handful. But I do get my information about what is supposed to be new, hot and awesome from the few of those techie-person blogs that I do follow. That's how I found out about things like del.icio.us, flickr, Twitter, Vox, Myspace (way back when), Facebook, Joost, and so on and on and on. Of those I only still regularly use the first two (where I secured the username maki, as I like to do on any new site if possible).

None of those cool hip techie type blogs has ever really talked much about StumbleUpon, and I don't know why. Because, StumbleUpon is awesome. It is the best way to surf the interweb waves, through thousands of sites that have been pre-selected for you (aka Stumbled Upon) by other people, and filtered according to your interests.

It is a lot easier to use in that way than del.icio.us. Yet every cool hip person has their del.icio.s links and feed, but no one, or hardly anyone, mentions their Stumbleupon profile. Is it because (as far as I know) there isn't any integration between StumbleUpon and blogs? No 'what i'm Stumbling' widgets? (Is there one?) Is it because they were acquired by eBay? Is it that you have to install their toolbar? Or is it that they sell you, prominently, the chance to be a prominently featured Stumbled-Upon site (for a price) when you click on the 'refer' link when your sites get Stumbled? (That's the first thing a lot of bloggers see of the service, and it's quite off-putting.)

I don't know if any or all of these are the reasons, but I am quite amazed at what the thing can do. And that's from just one day of playing with it. (I actually signed up about a year ago, mainly to secure maki as username, which I couldn't, but I grabbed makiko. But I just started really trying it out yesterday when my new bento site was getting Stumbled like mad.) It sort of looks like the not-hip (well at least the not- web developing and blogging immersed) people are using and raving about it a lot more tha

I am used to bookmarking things in del.icio.us, but I have started to Stumble stuff too. Here's what I'm Stumbling - friend me if you share my esoteric interests. It's really an awesome way to discover new-to-you sites.

(Though I'm not sure about the tagging. This site is tagged under Dating-tips. When did I ever offer dating tips?? Weird, just weird.)

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