by 
So I’ve finally done it. I went and signed up with Stumble Upon. I had been resisting for some time, but after Cordelia submitted this blog to Stumble and I had seen someone else do it as well I decided that I would finally take the plunge and see what it was all about.
Basically, Stumble Upon is a service that lets you see content throughout the web. But not just any content, high rated content.
Basically, they have you install a toolbar and then ask you what categories you are interested in. You simply press the stumble button and they’ll show you some content from the web. Then, you can press the thumbs up button, the thumbs down button or stumble again. You can also choose different segments to stumble from (as seen in this illustration from the site).
From what I understand, here’s how an article gets stumbled:
Someone submits an Article
First, someone submits an article to the site. This can be anything from a blog’s front page to a single image to a video file. They assign an appropriate description to the item and away it goes.
Your Friends Stumble Upon It
This is key. You see, there are two modes to stumble upon– one is the one I mentioned above– that one you only see high rated content. The other is the friend section– where you can see things your friends submitted and can rate it. So, simply put, if you have a lot of friends that stumble upon your sites, then you can get your sites seen by the community at large (depending on how good your content is!).
Your Content is Good– You’re Seen By Lots of People
This is the scenario you want to be in. Your blog or page of your blog is submitted, it’s highly rated, and you get traffic like you wouldn’t believe.
Stumbling Takes You Where You May Never Have Gone
One of the great things about Stumble Upon is the fact that you get not only high rated content, but you also get to see things that you may not have found otherwise– resources, tools, and content that’s both amazing and interesting.
Oh, and one more thing. The Stumble Upon plugin also has the feature of putting ratings in your Google search. So, when you search for something, you get the Stumble Upon ratings for the results and you can look at the results with a 5 star rating system.
If you join, let me know, and we can become friends!
Interesting. I’ll have to check it out!
Yep, I’ve been stumbling for a few months. Love it!
CBrunette is my username.
~Anna
I noticed Stumble Upon in my stats and so I joined. I “un-joined” almost instantaneously. Maybe I just don’t get it, but I certainly don’t need another technical thing to learn.
Here’s the problem: I thought you were supposed to “stumble” through random links in your field of interest. So I started stumbling through a bunch of fashion links. What a supreme waste of time! After about three “stumbles” through nothing but tiny on-line stores, I began to be concerned about recommending any of them. So I quit.
Maybe since Anna is in there, I can find her and then find some good links.
Do you think it’s more valuable than spending time creating good content and visiting blogs the old-fashioned way?
Well, like any socially driven media, the product is only as good as those things that are submitted. So far, I’ve found some really interesting pictures, some sites on archeology and Bible topics that were interesting, and some sites that I already knew about. The power of it comes into play when you have friends, I believe. As people starting being a “fan” of the stuff that you post, your ranking gets higher as does your clout.
I think that the main advantage to stumble comes into play if you’re the type of person that likes to surf to find new things and you want to share the things that you have found. I do delicious bookmarks about the same way– I bookmark things that interest me. So, I could be “stumbling” things that interest me and people could go through that, if they wanted.
Much better to be spending your time creating good content on your own site and using tools like Technorati, Google Blog Search or other means if you’re trying to actively find something. If you’re trying to relax or channel surf the web and occasionally find something good, then use stumble. They each have their place, and stumblers can definitely give you a good feel for high rated content, but it’s not for everyone.
There is no end to ways to spend time on the net! I’m constantly getting invitations to join new “clicks” online and feel bad ignoring them! I joined GoodReads and Facebook and those just seemed to start the ball rolling…right into the gutter!
I can barely keep up with reading my favorite blogs and posting on my own…so if I added stumbling to the list, I’d really be flat on the alley floor…
Your last comment, MIn, sums up my feelings.
Kinda funny that I write about a service I think is neat and I end up talking people out of it!
Well, I must add that I checked out your Stumble Blog after commenting here last night and I can see the draw. And since you have to register with Stumble to add to the reviews, I can see why one would join it. Thanks for having a review of my site on there, I appreciate it. 🙂
It’s definitely an extremely powerful tool for getting people to your blog. With the two stumbles people gave me I must have gotten 1000 page views. It’s crazy the effect it can have if you build up a network– just like most other things.