This seems like the next greatest Internet thing. I just installed the StumbleUpon toolbar today, and I don’t think it came packaged with any spyware or adware that I can tell. I ran Ad-Aware directly afterward and it turned up nothing, so that’s positive.

Who knew this has been around for a few years?

So what’s it good for… Well, when you sign up you select topics you are interested in exploring on the net, pick a screen name, then continue on your merry surfing way. You can then instantly rate any site you visit with ‘thumbs up, I like it’ or ‘thumbs down, Not-for-me’. You can also immediately chat about the site page’s content on a dedicated reviews page. All this is done from a toolbar in your browser, so it’s convenient. In essence it adds a whole new community plugin to the entire internet.

Other stuff you can do: Add friends, add favorites and click a button to ‘StumbleUpon’ random sites categorized in accordance with your topical choices. Not too shabby!

The only complication I see is (lack of?) flexibility of the system for categorizing site content. For instance the category ‘Travel’ is so broad. Somehow over time and from further use I’m sure the directory structure will make more sense.

Check it out!

Comment RSS - Trackback URI