5 Reasons StumbleUpon is by Far the Coolest Social Site

Written by Editor in Chief, Pick The Brain - 40 Comments
Categories: internet culture

This is a bit off topic for this blog so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Note: I’m not trying rip on other social sites and take a beat down from their supporters (even though I probably will regardless). I use and enjoy all the sites mentioned in this post. This is merely an expression of personal preference. Different strokes for different folks, or so they say.

1. No News – Or at least none if you aren’t looking for it. The news junkies own Digg and Reddit, where political and tech buzz stories dominate the front page. This is nothing new, but these stories all seem the same to me, and only 1 in 20 brings anything new to the table. I love to Stumble because I don’t have to go past the first page and into subtopics to find something interesting.

2. The Most Democratic Voting Process – While the other sites are dominated by buzz, I’ve found that Stumbling brings me the most quality sites. Because the voting process isn’t contingent on headlines, attention is based on content instead of sensationalism. The result is the cream of the crop rises to the top with less resistance.

3. No Work – No sifting through a page full of headlines trying to decide what to read. StumbleUpon makes it simple by sending you straight to a page it thinks you’ll like. It takes the middle man out, the middle man being your indecision, and the results are impressive. Even if you don’t like a site, a new alternative is a click away.

4. Wonderful Surprises – Does anyone else love the feeling of rolling the dice every time they hit the Stumble button? Nothing is better for finding something you like that you didn’t even know you liked. Whether you want something totally new or information about a specific topic, it leads to new resources that are outside your internet bubble.

Side note: Stumbling “photoshop tutorial” lead to many more quality results than an identical Google search.

5. A Pleasant Community – The Digg or Reddit users might not comment on a site, but they love to leave scathing comments back at the submission. I’m all for constructive disagreement, but from what I’ve seen, most of these people are just bitter. With StumbleUpon, these trolls don’t exist, or least they’re kept out of sight.

So there you have it. If you don’t already, you should start Stumbling. If you already do, then you know what I’m talking about.

Edit: I couldn’t resist adding this quick tip after it came to mind. It’s really simple, and a lot of you probably do it already, but I’ve found that using StumbleUpon in conjunction with del.icio.us is a great way to save your favorite stumbles and return to them later. Whenever I want to build a collection of resources, for say Photoshop or WordPress, I just stumble those keywords and use del.icio.us to tag all the best finds. This is the easiest way to build a great collection of resources. You have to love it when separate tools work together.

  • http://alexshalman.com/blog Alex Shalman

    You just got stumbled. I wonder what the stumble upon community will have to say about you speaking so nicely about them? Hm??? Oh yes, the stumble upon community doesn’t communicate. =)

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    They communicate with their thumbs.

  • http://alexshalman.com/blog Alex Shalman

    Perhaps they are a more evolved form of being?

  • http://jint3i.stumbleupon.com Justin Bailey

    “Perhaps they are a more evolved form of being?”

    Naw. Just a bunch of people with too much free time and good manners.

    Nice blog btw.
    *thumbs up*

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Thanks Justin, and you’re definitely right about the free time. I read on one person’s blog (can’t remember who) that they had to remove the tool bar from their work computer because it was too much of a distraction.

  • http://www.merlinstower.com DigitalAlan

    I agree with this article – and I gave it a Thumbs Up as well – But you can also read and write reviews about this page as well giving the “Community” more info. Similar to what you do when you Stumble A Page for the first time that was not listed in StumbleUpon. I think this whole concept is like this other blog entry by a friend of mine BiggAndyy – And that StumbleUpon is like the Remote Control for the internet user. Changing Channel one page at a time. Here is his article –> http://www.biggandyy.com/2007/02/14/channel-surfing-the-world-wide-web-the-stumble-effect/
    interesting read and what effect this stumble has on a website.

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    Thanks for the recommendation, that’s a cool article. I love the ‘Changing the Channel’ analogy. I wish I thought of that myself. :)

  • http://maxkaizen.com Max Kaizen

    problem is John: it’s too addictive & b4 you know it, you’ve stumbled off into the weeds & who gives a damn about the bloody GTD… just one more click on the Stumble! button :-/

  • http://www.greenfroggies.com claire

    I just stumbled this site :D

  • http://www.weebeef.blogspot.com Weebeef

    Ive been housebound for the last two months. my bestest discovery has been stumbleupon. its magical. “The sites I’ve seen”…isnt that a song from somewhere. like others I stumbled upon this one and subsequently subscribed. I even blogged about the phenomena too http://www.weebeef.blogspot.com
    keep up the good work John and stumble on to my site sometime. You’ll be more than welcome

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  • http://chill-fu.net/blog/ Matt

    I agree entirely. I have been using stumble for a while now and have definitely learned how to communicate via my thumbs.

  • http://r2h.org James

    i just stumbled this site too. HAHA, i love it. i was JUST thinking about how much i loved stumbleupon (cause a Real Life friend introduced me to it the other day) and how much better i thought it was than digg, because i found more interesting things. honestly, i was thinking about how i felt as though i was surfing the internet with like minded people. we are really onto something, we 21st century people, aren’t we? yes, i do believe we are…

  • http://spiiderweb.blogspot.com/ SPIIDERWEB™

    You are right. But I think you know that.

  • Beth

    Sometimes its just nice to stumble

  • http://macewan.org Robert

    I love stumbleupon. It’s like flipping the remote control except instead of tv it’s the Internet.

    Great with morning coffee.

  • http://annmichele.blogspot.com/ zigweegwee

    Once I got over the obsessive stage, Stumbleupon has been a lot of fun for me. My friends are always asking how I find the time to come up with the sites I’ve stumbledupon whether instructional, humorous or just bizarre but they’ve managed not to check the site out for themselves. The occasional nice comments fellow stumblers leave in my Inbox are a bonus.

  • http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/blog/ Marios Alexandrou

    You’re preaching to the converted!

    I recently went through the same thought process in a comparison of Digg and StumbleUpon — the two social networks I use the most. Guess which service one :-)

    http://www.mariosalexandrou.com/blog/?p=285

  • http://www.pickthebrain.com John Wesley

    It’s funny, this post got popular on StumbleUpon a month after I wrote it.

    If anyone wants to be friends this is my account: http://pickthebrain.stumbleupon.com/

    Friend me and I’ll friend you back.

  • Matt M

    LOL!
    I just got stumbled to this site… Coincidence?
    I think not.

    Can’t resist the stumling!
    Just one more and then I promise I am done.

  • http://spiiderweb.blogspot.com/ SPIIDERWEB™

    Matt M, don’t fool yourself. You will Stumble more. Its an addiction like chocolate.

  • http://tendrel.blogspot.com tendrel

    I enjoyed your article and also stumbled my way here. Nothing better than a five minute stumble break to relieve a little tension in the middle of a hard day. =)

  • chas

    i like using stumbleupon toolbar.. stumbleupon is the best truelly..

    i was also stumbled to this site..

  • http://www.habitationofjustice.com Lincoln

    You know, this hits precisely on what was bothering me about many of the popular Web 2.0 sites out there, from Digg to Newsvine. It was all too news oriented, too crowded with polemic commentators who loved to stir up the pot, that it just proved to be a turn off for me. StumbleUpon takes me away from all that, and back to the good old days of web surfing. :-)

  • http://stumbleupon.com/tjtele TJTele

    Yes Stumble Upon is the best thing to happen to the Internet since Google even better..

  • http://thearticlewriter.com/blog/2007/05/21/stumbleupon-a-whole-lot-of-fun/ Matt Keegan

    Point #4, wonderful surprises, is what I like most about StumbleUpon. There are times when I find a site and I feel as if I struck gold. Yes, the site was there all along, but S.U. presented a way for me to find it that I probably wouldn’t have otherwise.

  • http://www.hotelpro.ro Victor

    Well said.

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  • Tara

    Just one more stumble. LOL! Ok, for real….just one more. Boy do I know that feeling. It’s like Lays potato chips….can’t do just one!

  • Mike hunt

    The thing is, stumbleupon isn’t perfect. I prefer it to Digg, but it is not the god of everything good in the world, as you suggest. Sometimes I still stumble awful sites, and I can quickly go to something else, but other times I stumble random porn, which can be embarrasing. Usually its good. THUMBS UP!

  • http://vnevrologia.ru кpacaвицaвocтoкa

    Да уж… Тут как люди раньше говорили: Апрель с водой, а май с травой :)

  • Stumble Addict

    i agree 100%. stumble is definitely my favorite internet community, far and away.

  • http://mirpsiho.ru Зайчонок

    Благодарю за информацию, буду юзать. :)

  • http://glechebnik.ru БPATAH

    Хорошая статья. Обязательно буду ждать продолжения. Данная тема безусловно интересна всем.

  • http://lingvostilistika.ru WENTWORTH

    Интересно. Иногда такое бывает, что хоть стой хоть падай.

  • http://azzdorovya.ru Владимир Крылов

    НЕ в тему немного, но радует, что автор к блогу не просто тупо взял какую то тему для ВП, а сделал что то свое и вкладывает в это дело душу.

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  • Ronda

    This website is a spam file now that i stumbled upon it it won’t let me stumble anywhere else it keeps taking me back tot his site so wtf?

  • http://twitter.com/dino_dogan Dino Dogan

    Those are compelling reasons for StumbleUpon from a content-consumer perspective.

    What about SU from the content-maker perspective.

    How difficult is it to convert a looky-loo in to someone who leaves a comment, sign up for a mailing list, follows you on twitter, etc?