MakeUseOf » stumbleupon

StumbleUpon Gets Visually Appealing Makeover [News]

Bakari Chavanu — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 20:01:42 +0000

According to the online media research site, GigaOM, StumbleUpon has surpassed Facebook as “the biggest traffic driver among social media websites in the US”. StumbleUpon has always been one of the go-to sites for discovering new and interesting stuff on the Web, and recently the site has done a significant makeover that gives it a lot more visual appeal.

The new homepage of StumbleUpon replaces the predominately text-based layout (see first screenshot below) with attractive columns of high-quality images and photos linking to topics of interests for StumbleUpon members (second screenshot).

A new “Explore Box” has also been added for making keyword and phrase searches. Unlike Google, when you do a search in StumbleUpon, you are taken directly to sites that other StumbleUpon members found interesting to recommend.

This new design is more in line with the image-driven communication of most contemporary online websites, which often means a photo can draw your attention a lot faster than single columns of text.

As you click the “Stumble!” button in the drop-down menu of the site it begins to feel like you’re browsing a museum or exposition, because each click typically takes you to some very interesting places. You can like and dislike pages you “stumble upon”, and the ones you like get bookmarked to your account.

Another new feature added to the site are Channels, which are a collection of sites, people, and brands that you might find interesting.

StumbleUpon also has a gorgeous iPad app that includes all of the features of the online website.

Source : Blogworld

INFOGRAPHIC : The Life Cycle Of A Webpage On Stumbleupon

Mark O'Neill — Wed, 02 Nov 2011 19:01:42 +0000

There’s no denying that Stumbleupon is a very powerful social networking tool when it comes to promoting websites. Once a page gets into the Stumbleupon system (up to 2.2 million pages a month!), it can then be seen by hundreds, thousands, if not tens of thousands of people, all in a very short time.

Finding quality websites can be a challenge sometimes. That’s why it’s good that systems like Stumbleupon exist – to allow real people to submit what they feel is the best out there. This human-curated content ensures that the quality rises to the top while the worthless dregs float to the bottom. SU drives over 50% of online social media traffic so it’s nothing to sniff about. If you are serious about promoting your site, you would be a fool to ignore Stumbleupon.

We here at MakeUseOf have extensively discussed Stumbleupon before, such as explaining how it works, its URL shortening service, and the redesign of its iPad app. I myself am an enthusiastic Stumbler and indeed one of my earliest posts was on essential Stumbleupon tools. Now we have an infographic from Stumbleupon themselves, showing just what they can do when it comes to giving a site exposure. The half-life of an average link is apparently 400 hours and the average amount of time spent on a site by a stumbler is 72 seconds (but I guess that is down to the page content – if you give enough interesting engaging content, people will stick around longer).

Let us know what you think of the infographic. Do you agree that Stumbleupon has the same power and influence that it had when it first started? Is it a true force to be reckoned with when stacked up against the likes of Twitter, Facebook and now Google Plus? Let us know in the comments.

As usual, just click on the infographic to view a larger version.

Image Source : Stumbleupon Blog

StumbleUpon Offers Export Options For Blogs & Groups [News]

Yaara Lancet — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 20:00:46 +0000

StumbleUpon is now offering export options for their blog and groups. If you own a blog with StumbleUpon and wish to continue writing it using HTML, you can use the export tool to export everything, including images and embedded videos, to WordPress. As of October 24th, StumbleUpon groups will also cease to exist, but you can use StumbleUpon’s group export tool to save all your data and continue somewhere else.

To export your StumbleUpon blog into WordPress, you need to log into your account and then point your browser to the export tool. This will automatically export your entire blog into a file which you can save on your computer. StumbleUpon recommends that you create a new WordPress blog before you import your data and not import it into an existing blog. In the WordPress dashboard, you would need to go to Tools – > Import.

If you want the export file to contain videos, go to your StumbleUpon account settings and check the “Embed videos into your blog” box prior to creating the export file.

To import groups, you need to log into your StumbleUpon account, go to the group page and click the “Export Group” link. You should do this before October 24th, after which you will not be able to use groups anymore.

To learn more about exporting from StumbleUpon, visit the blog export guide and the group export guide.

What do you think of StumbleUpon’s recent moves? How will this affect the way you use StumbleUpon? Let us know in the comments.

Discover Cool Websites on Your iPad With The New StumbleUpon iPad App

Yaara Lancet — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 19:30:09 +0000

StumbleUpon is a veritably ancient service in the realm of web discovery. In fact, I seem to recall that way before Facebook came around, I already clicked an “I like it!” button many times each day. StumbleUpon is a service that creates a customized surfing experience, which is tailored to your exact liking by narrowing down on subjects and specific websites you like. With time, as many other services, it also became a social experience.

Recently, StumbleUpon have released a new version of their iPad app. It is now more social and also looks much better. I took it for a spin after not using StumbleUpon for a while, and I must say – I might be hooked again.

Stumbling

Stumbling with StumbleUpon is fun. If you’ve never done it before, you’d have to create an account with StumbleUpon. The first screen you see when you first load the app will prompt you to either log in with your existing account or create one (which you can now also do by connecting to Facebook).

After logging into your account, you can view your profile page. If you’ve used StumbleUpon before, this will already be populated by your liked websites and whatever personal info you’ve entered. In my case, it seems that I’m 23 years old. Hard to believe I’ve had a StumbleUpon account for so many years!

From your profile page you can also see who’s following you and the people you are following, and easily browse or even stumble within your favorites.

If you haven’t used StumbleUpon before, or if it’s been a while, you should configure your interests. By doing this, you make sure that you only stumble to websites that are likely to interest you. Not everyone wants to look at clothing and beauty websites, for example. This interface is really fun and easy to use. You can look at popular interests or browse all the interests by category or by first letter.

After choosing your interests, take a look at your homepage. You don’t really have to use it, but it’s sure nice to look at. From here you can start stumbling all your interests or just one of them, stumble some interests that are “Best for iPad Stumbling” (I guess they just look good on the iPad?), find friends, see the people you’re following and so on.

From any page you’re on, you can start stumbling simply by tapping the “Stumble” button on the top left side of your screen. If you like what you see, hit “I like it!”. This will add the website to your favorites and also help teach StumbleUpon what you like. If you don’t like it, make sure to tap the thumbs down button, so StumbleUpon knows you don’t want any more of those in the future.

From any page, you can easily decide to stumble just one of your interests. Tap the words next to the Stumble button to choose what you feel like seeing. Only feel like browsing online games today? No problem!

Another neat feature of the iPad app is the ability to browse your recently viewed websites by swiping sideways – sort of like turning pages. There are also arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen for this purpose. When you swipe to the next page when you’re on the latest website, it stumbles, so you can just keep on turning pages and never even worry about the Stumble button.

The Social Aspect

StumbleUpon has always had a social aspect, but in the new version it’s even better. The first thing you might want to do is find some StumbleUpon friends and follow them (and hope they follow you back).

You can currently do this by connecting StumbleUpon to your Facebook or Twitter and looking for friends that use StumbleUpon. For me, this only yielded one person. I guess my Facebook friends don’t use StumbleUpon. It also offered to scan my address book, but since I don’t really have one on the iPad, it found nothing. I’m still wondering how I can find friends who I know are using StumbleUpon but are not in my Facebook or Twitter. An option to just look for someone by username would have been helpful.

In every page you stumble to, you will now get a name of a person who likes it, and a “Comments & Info” button.

You can view the person’s profile and decide to follow him, or just browse his favorites. This is a good way to find people with similar interests and it provides yet another way to discover new websites. If you tap the “Comments & Info” button, you can view profiles of many other people who liked this page, view this page’s comments and comment on the page yourself.

As before, you can share your discoveries with the world using various methods. This is the full list of ways, but you can edit it to your liking – not all the options have to appear here, only the ones you use. If you wish to share via one of the services, you will of course need to have an account with that service and sign into it before you can share.

This is what it looked like when I shared using Facebook. I already connected StumbleUpon to Facebook previously, when I was searching for friends, so now the sharing option worked seamlessly. Just by tapping the share button and choosing Facebook I could immediately post a link on my wall, without leaving the app. Pretty cool!

Conclusion

StumbleUpon did a terrific job with this new app. If you’re even slightly into discovering cool new websites, or even if you’re just bored and looking for a way to burn some free time, do check it out.

What do you think of StumbleUpon? Know of better ways to discover the web? Do share in the comments.

StumbleUpon Redesigns & Launches Its iPad App [News]

Bakari Chavanu — Wed, 13 Jul 2011 14:31:28 +0000

The web discovery and bookmarking site, StumbleUpon, has launched its redesigned app for the iPad. The updated 1.4 version has the popular magazine style navigation, similar to apps like Zite, Flipboard, and Pulse. The new StumpleUpon app features were moved around, with larger menu bar buttons near the top of the home page for quicker access to Friends, Photos, Videos, and News. The latest version invites greater of use of hand navigation for the iPad, in which you can navigate through “Your Interests” and thumbnail views of your friends by simply swiping those elements forward and backwards on the screen.

In the same fashion, you can move forward and backwards, from one “stumbled upon” article to the next, by swiping a page left or right. This is easier and faster perhaps than hitting the Stumble! button at the top-left of the each page. Unfortunately however, you must move your hand to the top of the page to vote up or down an article. It would be great if you could simply three-finger tap a page to “Like it,” and two-finger tap to “Dislike it.”

The Star button at the bottom of the app allows you to quickly access your list of “Liked” articles. While you’re viewing a page, you can easily switch modes, say from Friends to Photos, by tapping the Mode button at the top of the app. You can also see what others have liked and may have commented on while you explore. Similar to the prior version of Stumbleupon, you can share selected articles via email, Facebook, Twitter, Google Reader, etc.

The new version is designed for both iPad and the iPhone, running iOS 3.0 or later.

Source : Stumbleupon Blog

Tumbl.in – The Stumbleupon Equivalent For Twitter That Finds You Great Links

Angela Alcorn — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 21:31:40 +0000

It’s a long afternoon at work – or a late evening alone – and you’re looking for an easy way to browse through some links you might find interesting. Where do you go? What if you want to limit your browsing to just links which were tweeted? Where do you go then?

Well, if you’re also a fan of Stumbleupon, the answer should be Tumbl.in. Basically, Tumbl.in is Stumbleupon for Twitter links, limited to your lists and favourite topics. It’s easy to use and quite a powerful way to read your Twitter links.

Once you start to use Tumbl.in, you’ll see the similarities with Stumbleupon. It’s set up as a top-loading menu which brings in each link as an iFrame. When you view each link, you can choose to retweet it, rate it, save it for later or just click the Tumbl.in icon for another link. If you prefer, you can browse links from a given sub-section of your available Twitter links.

When you set up Tumbl.in, you do so by authorising access to your Twitter account. Once this is done, you can choose a selection of your favourite topics, favourite Twitter lists and other options to ensure you get the best possible selection of links to read later. You can always change things later in preferences, so just pick whatever looks good and go with it.

If you have chosen to include staff picks, you also get occasional links which are popular on Tumbl.in and have been chosen to be featured by the staff at Tumbl.in.

It can take a little while to gather your Twitter links, so when you initially start Tumbl.in you might find occasionally give you a message telling you it’s still looking for links. When the link is shown, you see the associated Tweet by looking in the top left. This means you know exactly who tweeted the link, why it appears in your Tumbl.in selection and you can pass on the karma by retweeting the update if you like.

As you view the links, button options let you rate it in Tumbl.in, retweet it, keep it for later or just move on to the next link by Tumbl.in again. It’s really easy to do, so it’s perfectly compatible with those late evenings when you’re not quite tired enough to go to bed.

Obviously, the biggest threats to Tumbl.in is Twitter and Stumbleupon. If either of those two giants had a go at something like this, most people would use that service rather than this one. That’s not to say they would be better, merely that people forget about useful tools easily.

Another form of competition for Tumbl.in is any other way of viewing your Twitter links in a comprehensible manner. For instance, the Twitter Times. However, I think Tumbl.in is different enough to hold its own market.

Check out some more great articles on Twitter tools:

If you’ve become a fan of Tumbl.in, let us know why in the comments!

5 Google Chrome Extensions That Could Finally Make Me Switch From Firefox

Mark O'Neill — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 01:31:06 +0000

I have been using Google Chrome since it first came out and it has a lot of features to recommend itself (the speed and lower memory usage being the main sells). But there were lots of features that were lacking which prevented me from making the full switch from Firefox. With my heavy usage of Greasemonkey scripts and a few “can’t live without them” extensions, I had to keep Firefox as my default browser and have Chrome sitting on the sidelines.

But now the Google Chrome Extensions Page has lots of browser extensions you can try out. As with everything else, it is populated with a lot of junk but the gems are there if you do a bit of searching.

To use them though, you need to change your version of Chrome to the beta version. You can find it here and updating is very easy. And it goes without saying that you need to open up the Extensions website in the Chrome browser (just covering all bases here!)

Here are 5 good Chrome extensions which are seriously tempting me away from Firefox.

XMarks (Previously Known As Foxmarks)

This is the one that has really got me excited. One of the biggest problems I previously encountered with having two browsers was being unable to synchronize everything. As well as two browsers, I also use two computers so being able to have my large set of bookmarks wherever I go was an essential must-have.

As long as I stayed with Firefox, I was safe with using XMarks but what about Chrome? I briefly looked at Saikat’s suggestion of Transmute but it still didn’t feel right. But now I don’t have to worry because Xmarks now works on Chrome too! Just make an XMarks web account, keep it synchronized whenever you close your browser and you will always have an up-to-date set of bookmarks wherever you go and whatever browser you happen to be using – Firefox or Chrome.

Google Mail Checker

I have always been keen to have a decent Gmail Notifier but I didn’t want to install the Google Toolbar or the Google Talk client just to have an email notifier. So this easy basic no-frills notifier extension is just the trick for me.

Once you have installed it, just open a new tab in Chrome, log into the desired Gmail account and then the notifier remembers the details. It will also start monitoring the account and will notify you when you have new mail (as well as tell you how many new emails you have).

Since I use Google Apps instead of a regular Gmail account, I had to do some changing about but it’s very easy. Just go to the Chrome options (that little wrench at the top right of the browser), choose Extensions and then choose Google Mail Checker –>Options. Then enter your domain details and save it all.

Stumbleupon

I use Stumbleupon a lot on a daily basis and not having a Stumbleupon toolbar for Chrome was a tad annoying. This meant I was constantly having to use Firefox for my stumbling when I would much rather have been using Chrome. True, you can go to the Stumbleupon website and start up a web toolbar from there but being the lazy person that I am, even that was a bit too much effort for me when all I had to do in Firefox was click a toolbar button.

And now clicking a button is all you have to do in Chrome too. This is still the web version of the Stumbleupon toolbar but going to it is made a lot easier now. Just click the SU logo now on your browser and it will instantly open a web toolbar so you can go stumbling. When you are finished, press the button again and the web toolbar goes away. Much faster and more convenient for those impulse moments when you want to have a quick stumble or two.

Evernote Web Clipper

I am starting to use Evernote a lot more now, especially for keeping records of URL’s, screenshots, general notes, as well as synchronizing my web account with my Android phone. The company has now introduced an extension for Chrome that has the same functionalities as the Firefox extension, including being able to clip the whole page to your Evernote web account.

RSS Subscription Extension

One of the really big things lacking in Chrome was the fact that webpage RSS feeds were not being “auto-discovered”. I was so used to the orange RSS box in the Firefox address bar that when I started using Chrome, I instantly found it really annoying that this feature, which I took for granted in Firefox, was gone.

But now RSS Subscription Extension addresses that issue by putting the “auto-discover” box back into the address bar (but really this should be a default feature).

With these five extensions, a lot of the main tasks I do in Firefox are now covered – email, RSS feeds, stumbling, synchronizing bookmarks and clipping material to Evernote. It would be even better if I had small search boxes like Firefox but I can’t complain – Chrome is definately heading in the right direction.

Are there any Chrome extensions which you are finding invaluable and which are tugging you away from the clutches of Firefox? If so, let us know what they are in the comments.

How Does StumbleUpon Work? [Technology Explained]

Guy McDowell — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 23:01:26 +0000

Of all the web based applications to come along in the last few years, StumbleUpon is easily the one I use the most. By clicking that little button, I have discovered so many great websites and even greater information that I would never have found by traditional searching methods.

As a former web-developer, one of the things I do is try to figure out how neat web apps work. Now, before I get rolling, I have to say that EXACTLY how StumbleUpon works is a trade secret and they certainly aren’t going to reveal that info to me. Also, a comprehensive overview of how it might work would make for an article that is far longer than this format allows for. What follows is a simplified theory on how it works based on my years of web developing and some probing around the application.

The heart of any large web application is the database. If you aren’t familiar with what a database is, the best everyday example I can give is the phone book. A phone book is just a lot of data records that are organized by region, business or residential, town, and then alphabetically by last name. Because the structure of the phone book has become common knowledge, we can easily find that data that we want. That common knowledge of looking up the region, then deciding if the number we want is residential or a business, then looking up the town and then quickly going to the alphabetical section where we know that John Q. Public’s number will be – under the P. That process might be referred to as an algorithm for finding a phone number.

I expect that StumbleUpon has a very large database!

When you sign up for StumbleUpon, they ask you to define a few categories of interest to you. This helps them to direct you to web pages that have been put in those categories.

When you press the button, a message is sent to the StumbleUpon database that most likely is just your User ID. The database looks up the categories that you chose when you signed up. From there, the application most likely chooses one of those categories randomly. Then the application goes through that category and finds a webpage in that category that is new to you, and directs your browser to that page.

Now it gets a bit more complicated as certain questions are raised. The first one that comes up for me is, how do they know the website is new to me? Well, I imagine that the websites that you have visited through StumbleUpon are tracked. I say this because I have gotten to the point in some StumbleUpon categories where StumbleUpon tells me that there is no more for me to see in this category. (Yes, I stumble a lot.)

Now I wonder how it knows what type of web pages in a certain category I will like. That’s what the thumbs-up and thumbs-down buttons are for.

If I give a page a thumbs-up, it probably adds a point to not only that page, but to the keywords associated with that page, so other pages with a high correlation to that pages keywords will be weighted heavier in favour of showing up under my User ID.

If that’s the case for the thumbs-up, then the thumbs-down has to function in a similar manner. Hit the thumbs-down button and and the application, in effect, takes away a point for that page and pages with similar keywords. The thumbs-down button does have a few more features to it though. If you click on the black arrow-down part of the button, you’re given a few options: Not-For-Me, Report Spam, Duplicate Content, and Block Website.

Not-For-Me is the basic function of this button. Report Spam sends a message to StumbleUpon that the page served up is not anything like what it should be and is just, well, spam! Duplicate Content helps StumbleUpon know when you get served a page more than once. That could happen if the page has been added under more than one category. Block Website will block the entire website that the page was served from. This is what I use when I come across a page that is in another language or just completely not for me.

Here’s a little chart to give you a visual representation of the simplified process, as I believe it happens.

That’s the simple underpinnings of StumbleUpon. As you move to the right of the StumbleUpon toolbar, there are different options you can use to refine your Stumbling and add to the quality of the rankings of pages.

Do you use StumbleUpon? What’s your favourite site that you have stumbled upon? Let us know your StumbleUpon stories in the comments below.

Su.pr – An Extraordinary URL Shortener from StumbleUpon

Damien Oh — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 13:00:55 +0000

Su.pr is a new URL shortener service created by the popular StumbleUpon team. In fact, Su.pr is more than just a URL shortener. It is also a one-stop hub for you to share and promote your content on Twitter, Facebook and StumbleUpon instantly.

Su.pr is currently in private Beta mode. If you like to test drive the service, you must first have a StumbleUpon account, then follow the official SU twitter account and wait for them to release the beta code. I was lucky to receive the beta code the moment I followed SU, but I have seen others waited 5 days for the code. Your waiting time could vary. Once you obtained the beta code, simply enter into the input field at the Su.pr homepage.

At the homepage, you can see a textbox where you can enter your text message and link. Just like Twitter, you are only allowed 140 characters and all links within the text will be shorten with the Su.pr prefix.

From here, you have several options. You can either:

Post your text message to Twitter or Facebook (or both)
Schedule it to post at a later date (like Tweetlater)
Just use the URL shortener service to translate your long URL

Is that all about Su.pr?

You bet! That is only the tip of the iceberg. Every post message or link that you submit (or create) via Su.pr will be tracked and recorded. You can view real time analytic result of your posted items and see how popular it gets. Statistics that you can view include the number of retweets, number of StumbleUpon reviews, number of click through and even traffic source. You can view stats for the past 12 hours, past 7 days, or even past 30 days.

More surprises

Promoting your website

If you are looking to gain more traffic for your site, here is a good way to promote your site. By submitting your websites (you can enter up to 3 websites) in the Promote Website field in the Settings page, Su.pr will analyze your site(s) for the most popular content and promote them via StumbleUpon.

Su.pr bookmarklet

Su.pr is not yet integrated in the StumbleUpon toolbar. Users who wish to have quick access to Su.pr services can drag the bookmarklets (located at the bottom of Su.pr homepage) onto your bookmark bar.

Launching of API key

StumbeUpon has released the API for developers, so we should be able to see more third party apps that integrate with Su.pr in the near future.

How does StumbleUpon play a part?

Until now, it seems that everything is about Su.pr and there is no mention of StumbleUpon playing a part in the process. So how does SU play a part in Su.pr?

This is where SU comes in. When your readers/visitors/followers click on your link to reach the destination page, a StumbleUpon toolbar will show up on top of the page. If the page is not yet submitted to SU, a Discover button will be available for the user to submit to SU, else a thumb up/down button will show. This is very similar to the Digg bar, except that it is more user-friendly and maintains the usual high standard of the SU toolbar.

What Su.pr is lacking at the moment?

There are several functions that are clearly missing in Su.pr right now. The inability to post tweet to multiple Twitter and Facebook accounts, inability to edit scheduled post (except for deletion), inability to post to Facebook page/group, not integrating Su.pr into StumbleUpon toolbar are some of the features that are missing and are highly requested by the community.

Noting that this is still a beta version, I am confident that the StumbleUpon team will get all this ironed out in the final release.

Meanwhile, if you have not tried Su.pr, do follow Stumbleupon (on Twitter) and grab the invitation code now.

So what do you think? Thumbs up or down? Let us know in the comments!

3 Ways to See Most Favorited Google Search Result

Ann Smarty — Sat, 04 Apr 2009 15:01:29 +0000

Since the emergence of social web, developers have been trying to make the search more social. Really, having people to suggest you results based on your search query is a great idea because the machine can’t understand many objective aspects of the great content like style and usefulness.

By integrating social websites within Google search results, we thus achieve two aims: we combine Google search which we love most of the times with social media users’ recommendations who rate each page. If we also combine data from several social media sources, we are most likely to find the best result quickly and efficiently.

Browser Bookmarks (XMarks)

Xmarks FireFox addon (formerly knows as FoxMarks): I’ve been using it for a while as that’s a cool way to synchronize your bookmarks among a few computers and also access them from anywhere in the world online. It has introduced quite a few cool features recently – and one of them is Google search results page enhancer. It places a little blue icon next to the result which was bookmarked most of the times.

If you click on the icon, you’ll be invited to find more info on the result which includes the page ratings, reviews and similar sites:

StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon toolbar inserts StumbleUpon users’ ratings within Google SERPs results. Besides, it shows:

the name of your friend who recently stumbled it (meaning that this information is provided by the most reliable source, i.e. your friends);
the category it was discovered at.

Delicious and Digg

SEOquake is a feature-rich FireFox addon that can be configured to show how many times each page was saved at Delicious.com and how many times the domain was dugg on Digg:

Any other ways to see people’s recommendations within Google search results? Please share them!

Post image from netsimage.com