(Credit)

Not everyone follows Stumble closely, so let’s go through some of the most recent updates:

1 – Being More Publicly Visible

Garrett Camp, the co-founder has certainly done his fair share of appearances at events but it was good to see that the SU team came out for a South by Southwest Party!

2 – Improved Advertising Network

Why should Facebook ads, sponsored Tweets, Digg sponsors, and FourSquare mayor rewards have all the fun? SU has gone through and dramatically improved their advertising network, most notably adding the option of paying with a credit card and not just PayPal.

3 – Interactive Badges!

This is the improvement we’ve all been waiting for.  With all the Tweetmeme retweet and Facebook share buttons out there (yes, Digg and Reddit have them too) we have long been hoping for an interactive StumbleUpon badge.  This was previously available from SU if you were a major publisher but now anyone with a website can add an SU badge with pride (and hopefully some traffic, too ).

4 – StumbleUpon for Chrome

SU’s latest news into the mix is adding StumbleUpon toolbar to Chrome:

This is a wonderful addition to the web toolbar and Su.pr, StumbleUpon’s link shortening tool.

Kudos to you again StumbleUpon, for all that you do!

(image credit: xyzzy)

What a year it has been for StumbleUpon.

First, having it break away from eBay (who’s been on a divestiture streak as it is, also recently spinning off Skype) and be repurchased by the original founders seems to be paying off.  Since then, we’ve seen:

• A new UI (in beta for a while and rolled out fully as of yesterday)
• Su.pr,  a url shortner that also allows you to schedule posts as well as excellent analytics

The latest SU innovation is the addition of new topics.  While this may not sound like much, it actually makes all the difference.  Let me explain.

Let’s say you were at your local library and you wanted to find books about cooking.  But wait … there is no cooking section! So, you have to go to a more generalized/unrelated section of the library (dining out? hobbies? food?) to find what you’re looking for.

And that’s exactly what has plagued Stumbleupon for so long.

Granted, part of the issue is that users aren’t typically librarians and really don’t know how to categorize things for the betterment of others.  Now, we as SU users have more options:

• Arts/History: Design, Photoshop, Quotes, Woodworking
• Commerce: Home Business, Luxury
• Computers: Facebook
• Hobbies: Crochet, Quilting, Scrapbooking
• Sci/Tech: Gadgets, Technology
• Society: Christmas

As far as social media goes, the noteworthy update in there is that you now can have an interest called Facebook.

Keep up the good work, StumbleUpon!  We appreciate it.

But after trying the service for over a week, I have to admit that my initial reaction may have been a little bit hasty.  This shortening service may actually have some potential.  If they work on the ideas that people are suggesting, the veteran of the game – TinyURL - may start to have some sleepless nights ahead.

The main advantage that Su.pr has over other similar sites is that it has the power of the Stumbleupon community behind it.  Once Su.pr gets onto the Stumbleupon toolbar, those fans will be using it all the time to shorten and track their Stumbleupon submissions.  This is something that big names such as TinyURL doesn’t have – a ready made user base who will embrace the service from the word go.

You can sign into Su.pr with your Stumbleupon account or use the beta code “suprbeta”. (Update: StumbleUpon just made Su.pr public) Once in, you have two immediate options – just shorten a link (to do with what you will) or “Post” which will send the link to Twitter and/or Facebook.

Clicking “just shorten” will give you a nice short URL as the service is supposed to do:

But if you choose to “post” it, you can then open up all the tracking possibilities.

Once posted, you will see your “stats” section open up below with the link you have just posted.

Now click on “thumb up now” to submit the link to Stumbleupon.   This opens up a box to thumb the link up and also give you an opportunity to make a comment, just like you would on any other Stumbleupon submission.

After you have submitted the link to Stumbleupon, click on “view stats” to get an immediate overview of who is viewing your submission.

As you can see, it shows you how many Stumbleupon views you are getting as well as retweets and where your traffic is coming from – directly typed in, bookmarked, email and mobile.  Since this link has just been submitted, the page is pretty much blank but once people start receiving the link, that graph will quickly fill up.

One possible privacy issue is that you can view the Stumbleupon stats for ANY website, even if you are not the owner of that site.  Just go to http://su.pr/report/domain/yoursite.com/ and enter the domain name in place of yoursite.com.  OK, perhaps some webmasters may not consider their stats top secret but some others, including the really big blogs with a lot of advertising money at stake, may not want their stats thrown out there for all to see.  A way to lock this page down unless you are the owner may be a good idea for Su.pr to urgently consider.

What if you don’t want to post a Su.pr link just now but later at a certain time? No problem there either.  Su.pr has you covered.  Just use the “schedule for later” option and enter the time you want it sent. Be careful though to choose your correct time zone, though.

That is the basic essence of Su.pr – to give you a way to shorten your links and then track them.  But you would be sorely mistaken if you thought that was the end of it.  Oh no, there’s more so let’s take a look at them all.

First there’s a Worpress plugin.  Apart from being able to have your links posted to Twitter and Facebook,
the plugin also allows you to set up custom domain short URL’s.  So instead of http://Su.pr/ABCD, you can now have http://yourdomain/ABCD.  This is a fantastic development for anyone who does a lot of URL shortening and at the same time wants to promote their blog domain. Just follow the instructions here to find out how to do it.

Another great feature of the WordPress plugin is that a Stumbleupon toolbar will appear on your domain when someone clicks on a Su.pr URL in one of your blog posts.  This gives them the chance to thumb it up and down and also track the URL at the same time. However there seems to be a big hiccup in this department as stumbling Su.pr links with this toolbar will take you to an error page. It seems that the Su.pr team may have released this option a bit too prematurely.

Having the Stumbleupon toolbar at the top of the domain though will probably be a big boon for webmasters who want to push their content a bit more.   If you put your domain name into your Su.pr settings then when the toolbar shows up, your most popular links will appear in an iframe to the right of the page along with the number of stumbles that link has received.

Su.pr also has an API key so developers who wish to make products around the Su.pr concept will be able to do so. So look out soon for Adobe AIR apps to shorten your links from and iPhone apps.  Although the Su.pr team are already looking at such concepts in their suggestions forum.

For those who like things a little bit simpler, there is also a browser bookmarklet which will make it a bit easier to turn the pages you’re on into Su.pr links.

It’s great how the Stumbleupon team have taken such a common concept such as the short URL and turned it into a tool of many uses, as well as heavily promoting the Stumbleupon service at the same time.  When you think about how former owners eBay were letting Stumbleupon stagnate, it’s good to see the site going back to their original owners and those owners going all out to create something which may in the long term revolutionize the site and the web.  Look at it this way, how many short URL sites are offering all the things that Su.pr is offering and when you look at the suggestions forum, it’s obvious that Su.pr is going to knock out all other rivals at the short URL business.  For a start, the Stumbleupon community is driving it forward with ideas and suggestions on how to improve.

This is something that companies like TinyURL can only dream about.

But to simply label Stumbleupon a social network where you can find other amazing websites belittles its other amazing potential. For example, I have noticed it starting to influence search engines such as Google and Yahoo. Could Stumbleupon’s human-filtered search results be the beginning of the next evolution of search engines that could see the all-powerful Google algorithim be made redundant?

If you switch on the relevant feature in the Stumbleupon toolbar and then go searching in Google or Yahoo, you will then see this in your search results :

I chose “Garfield” as it was the first thing that popped into my head!

But you’ll see that there are now Stumbleupon factors in the search index. There are thumbs up, indicating a positive reaction from a Stumbleupon user, a speech bubble (indicating there are reviews available to read), the name of the Stumbleupon user that recommended the page and the category that the website appeared in Stumbleupon.

Now for Garfield, it’s no big deal whether someone likes him or not. But if you’re looking to buy something online or you’re looking for facts online, it helps to have pages that have been recommended by actual human beings, rated by human beings and reviewed by human beings.

Google may brag about its all-powerful algorithim but the one thing the algorithim doesn’t have is its ability to smell a scam or its ability to work out when a fact isn’t a real fact. Only real human beings can do that and that’s what makes Stumbleupon users with their ratings and reviews stand out from the crowd.

I’m very fond of calling Stumbleupon the “fledgling web democracy” because that is precisely what it is. It isn’t just a bunch of people looking at stupid websites and making profile pages. It’s a democracy of web users filtering out webpages and voting them up and down. That part, I think, is often overlooked by others and now that Stumbleupon has integrated itself into Google and Yahoo, that web filtering can start to influence overall search results and all the bad sites can now be voted to the very bottom. Something an anonymous computer algorithim can never do. Stumbleupon is the “Quality Control” of the World Wide Web.

If you want to take part in this web democracy, all you need to do is download and install the Stumbleupon toolbar and then switch on “Highlight Recommended Search Results”. Then start stumbling and voting!

But feel free to look at some LOLcats every now and then.

Written by Mark O’Neill

(image credit: invent)

With all the attention that Google Pagerank is getting now *yawn*… it’s a good time to talk of about the effectiveness of StumbleUpon.

SU has really been on a tear lately. According to Alexa, Stumbleupon has never ranked higher in its history, currently ranked 170 . It is also becoming more mainstream, now having over 3.7 million users (consider they only had 1 million in July 2006).

When I started writing this post, I was only going to talk about the StumbleUpon Toolbar Update for Firefox. If you’ve used Firefox recently, you’ve probably been prompted to install the latest toolbar update. Not sure about you, but I don’t like not knowing about what I’m upgrading. So the geek in me did a little digging and I came across the StumbleUpon for Firefox Changelog.

The update is worth it – see the StumbleUpon Blog’s report on SearchReviews:

You can now see who the friend that thumbed up each page in the SERPS.

Also while doing some research on this article, I came across the Unofficial StumbleUpon FAQ. There is some pretty good information on this page, such as giving premium users the ability to create their own groups (you might be surprised how effective a good group can be).

Here are some further resources to help your StumbleUpon knowledge:

StumbleUpon Help Forum

StumbleUpon Beta Toolbars

Here is a good pictorial on how StumbleUpon actually works:

click on the image for a larger version (h/t arleas)

As social media and (quality) blogging now allow sites to rank very quickly, it will be interesting to see how this all pans out. Especially with a more level PR playing field.

I’ve found that StumbleUpon has some interesting folks that expand quite a bit on their negative opinions. Take my recent post about the 16 personality types of StumbleUpon users. It was generally very well liked (23 reviews, 20 of which were positive), but if you take a look at the thumbs down reviews, you’ll find things like this one from TravisKab:

It’s nice to be able to sit back and laugh about this. Just so you all know, I really don’t feel compelled to pigeonhole myself as a personality type and frolic (spelling?) in traffic. But, I do like to take notice of interesting patterns in social media and spread the word about them. And strong opinions one way or the other make life far more interesting than zombies saying “nice post,” “lame,” or “I don’t like it”. By all means, keep the discussion going.

And hey, people that post positive reviews are also pretty verbose. Take this one from TheNanny612 for instance:

I do see the point of the couple of thumbs down reviews on the 16 personalities post. People were expecting a more thorough analysis of StumbleUpon users and felt that the Myers Briggs test was not substantial / accurate enough to be based upon. To this, I respond that this is a social media blog, not a psychology lab

Hey, if you want to do some grant writing, we put some stumblers in a sensory deprivation chamber for a while and see how they do. It’s still pretty good that StumbleUpon even has a spot for personality type unlike most social media stuff that is out there.

Here’s a different angle of looking at social media entirely – by personality type. In case you missed it, when you are filling out your profile in StumbleUpon, you can put what personality type you are. Using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), there are 16 possibilities a person can be. There are lots of sites that have sample tests online, but here is the official foundation continuing the original work.

So, I’ve taken a sampling of top stumblers, social media mavens/addicts, and people I just plain find interesting. Here is what I found (personality type definitions credit – personalitypage.com):

The (E)xtroverts:

ENTP – The Visionaries (we’re the best, by the way )
nowsourcing
etcetera (top stumbler)
tnash

ENFJ – The Givers
barbarakb
noey

ENTJ – The Executives
waynesmallman

ESTP – The Doers
khook20

The (I)ntroverts:

INFP – The Idealists
gladius
vladtheaffiliate

ISTJ – The Duty Fullfillers
avigle
rustybrick

INTP – The Thinkers
bartthebear
flyingrose

INFJ – The Protectors
caile-girl (top stumbler)

If you haven’t put in your personality type in StumbleUpon yet, you’re missing out. This is an interesting item that tells more about you than that your interests include the Internet and computers

For those of you that don’t already know her, Anna (Aivsdog) is a power user over at StumbleUpon with over 500 fans and 5,000 pages liked.

Hey Aivsdog, it’s a pleasure interviewing you. Thanks for making the time.

It is my pleasure to do this for you and to let everyone know how wonderful StumbleUpon is.

1. How did you start out at StumbleUpon?

I don’t really remember how I came across it but I do think a friend of mine mentioned it and I thought I would check it out.

2. Tell us about what keeps bringing you back to StumbleUpon.

I am always coming back because of all the new things people are thumbing up and discovering. Also all the wonderful people on the StumbleUpon. I made a lot of wonderful friends. Some of my friends on StumbleUpon are ferusvulpes, FATCATdagg, anahey, StormJosh, zspada15, SantaGauss, pkirsch, and you.

3. Surely, you’ve noticed a surge in users / user activity lately. How would you say that the SU community has changed?

It is such a wonderful friendly community to finding the best things across the web and I think that is what keeps people coming and joining. There are also new sites being added every second. Ways to meet people with the same interest and same website interests. It is colorful and creative. Just a great place to hang out.

4. You’ve really become a popular user with over 125 reviews and 500 fans. And at such a young age, no less. I find that folks that are Generation X and older sometimes have a hard time understanding the latest generation’s success on social news / social bookmarking sites. Maybe it’s just that I’m still relatively young yet, but I have no trouble seeing why. When I was a kid, the Internet barely existed (no www for sure), and my first computer didn’t even have a harddrive (Apple IIc). Today, people grow up with the Internet all around them and with all the tools available. Not that everyone young is tech savvy, but you almost need to go out of your way to at least have some aptitude. What are your thoughts?

It isn’t actually hard to understand. Remember that we young ones learn things quicker and easier and plus if you have a interest in it you will even learn it quicker also. Our young brains are still developing and don’t confuse things as much as when you get older. Also we have better memory. I am an Internet lover and just love doing anything with social networks and finding things that are fun, interesting, bizarre, and anything that catches my eye. I have always had a computer and internet in my life and just you learn more and more every single day you use it. StumbleUpon is actually made pretty easy to understand so anyone can use it no matter what your age might be. Don’t give up if you don’t understand it right away.

5. What other types of social media sites do you like?

I love social networks. Some other social networks that I enjoy are myspace, facebook, and livejournal. There are so many others and always new ones being created.

6. Social Media such as StumbleUpon has become the latest craze in the Internet Marketing industry. Do you see yourself going into this type of industry in the future?

I would love to do something with the Internet and social networking. But my main career idea is something with animals and photography. Like an animal photographer. I will probably do some kind of job on the Internet some time in my life. I probably will have some different small jobs. Maybe sell some things on the Internet.

7. Any tips for those that are just starting out in StumbleUpon now?

Take your time and explore and learn about StumbleUpon. It does take some time to learn how to do everything and get the hang of things. Go to different peoples pages and see what kind of things attract people to your pages. Some people with great things and helpful pages that i visit often are sehsxu, chris789, 7HL, geoff, starspirit, tutto, CherishMe, and lots of others. Keep your StumbleUpon page updated. Come by my page if you need help with anything and check out my pages that are always being updated.

8. How much time do you spend on StumbleUpon?

I get on and off the internet during the day and so I am on it between 2-5 hours is a good estimate of time I spend on StumbleUpon. Usually whenever I am on I am on StumbleUpon and never far from it.

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.