The Secret Features of StumbleUpon
30 08 2007
StumbleUpon, a popular social media site, is a fantastic way to “channel surf” through the web. The StumbleUpon folks were intelligent to set up the system the way that did. Ebay thought so too, having recently purchased them for $75 million.
So, what’s the secret feature, you ask? First off, StumbleUpon has a much more thorough Help page than most social networking sites, but as with any good help page, there will always be more to add.
If you have ever had someone review something that you Stumbled, you will see something like this:
(If you’re wondering about the context of this review, this stumbler was reviewing my article about Google Sky being released).
Note that the “Helpful?” link has been highlighted. That’s because I said that this user’s review was helpful. I’ve seen on the web that some people speculate that selecting “no” is the same as reporting a review that’s inappropriate. Even if that’s true, nothing is speaking to the “yes”.
I have seen a notable difference in the popularity of my stumbles that I selected helpful reviews vs. not selecting them. Has anyone else seen similar results? Perhaps there is also some added benefit from others rating your reviews, bringing you closer to Top Stumbler status? Look for a future post from me to go into further stats comparing the results.
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[...] The Secret Features of StumbleUpon StumbleUpon, a popular social media site, is a fantastic way to “channel surf” through the web. The StumbleUpon folks were intelligent to set up the system the way that did. Ebay thought so too, having recently purchased them for $75 million. [...]
We thought over @ http://www.askTheAdmin.com we were crazy for thinking the same thing - but it is true. And it is very noticable!
Hey if you thumbs up our site we will do the same for you
Great article keep them comming!
Great Article! Thank you!
@astone: you’re quite welcome! More articles like this to come!
Looking forward to the article on stats comparison! Nice!
I believe that the more reviews a page gets, the higher it ranks for its tag.
Check out the top stumbler’s sites’ reviews count. If there are a lot, then reviews probably do contribute.
Metagg is tracking this post…
Find out what Social News Sites are discussing this post over at metagg.com…
@yc: thanks, still working on the follow up to this though.
@oleg: that’s a good theory, but the jury is still out on if you mark the reviews as helpful or not.
[...] site has its own strengths and weaknesses. I think the one with the best community will have to be StumbleUpon. People on all other sites have a tendency to be brutal but on StumbleUpon even when criticizing [...]
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Hi Brian and thanks for the link.
I usually make a point of voting on people in a Review. But most of the time, people are just grabbing chunks of the page, which defies being voted on.
Just the clarify the voting down option: I think this only becomes a warning to the moderators on StumbleUpon if the individual is getting voted down on a regular basis, rather than just in the one Review…
@wayne: you are welcome. I’m not 100% convinced that this is what the voting down option is for, but it is a plausible theory. Wouldn’t it make more sense to have a report this user function?
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