Stumble Upon – customized “channel” surfing for the web

1maltinej • 11th Aug 2011 • internet apps, random thoughts, tech

I have been using stumbleupon.com for more than a year now, and its great. Its the web, organized into categories, then you choose which categories you want to surf and click the Stumble! button.That’s it!

A new web page will come up having to do with the specific category you chose, OR you can stumble ALL the categories (similar to a shuffle all on your i-pod).  If you enjoy a specific site you can Click on the Thumbs Up button which means you like it, or you can click on Thumbs Down, with which you can block the whole website, report spam, or just say you don’t like it. You can then click on the stumble button again, or set it up so that it automatically Stumbles to another page when you Thumb down or thumb up.

When you click on the thumbs up button you save it as a favorite page, which then is saved to your preferences and your own stumbleupon  page. These can then be shared with other people through email or if they are fellow “stumblers” you can just share to them.

You can start your stumbleupon session (’cause believe me they can turn into long sessions!) by visiting their website and logging in after creating an account, OR you can setup an add on that sets up a nifty toolbar in you browser. I set up the toolbar as I use stumbleupon on a daily basis, but you don’t have to if you start to stumble through the stumbleupon website.

As I stopped watching TV years ago, this is my favorite internet passtime when I just need to wind down. I have found many interesting pages and information using stumbleupon. I know you will too!