StumbleUpon has been a busy bee. We certainly hoped to see some great new changes from the SU crowd after it was bought back by the initial founders after being sold to eBay, and they are doing nothing short of doing their best to impress!
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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!
Oh yes, StumbleUpon badges are definitely overdue! And glad to see the Chrome toolbar as well.
Keep it up Stumble Upon! =)
It’s too late and not enough. The whole StumbleUpon system is broken. It’s random and the community is hostile. For instance your followers on SU don’t see the links you post and you are not allowed to use StumbleUpon as a business person unless you hide your business affiliations.
Btw. what does that 3546 mean? “Views?” That’s so 1999. I can’t imagine someone having 3546 reviews or thumbs up.
I’ve left SU several months ago I don’t miss anything. I use Twitter for business and Tumblr for private inspiration instead.
I may not be who you want to hear from. I’m not a business person – just a blogger. I’ve just stumbled upon “Stumble Upon”. I find great sites and am being immensely entertained. Thanks.
Been with Stumbleupon since 2005. Up until it was sold to eBay, Stumbleupon was great. Now.. I don’t interact with the community anymore and just use to find random crap I might not otherwise see. If I get bored with it, I’ve got Reddit to fall back on. Much better community. =)
I’ve never used SU for community – not interested. I only use it for random searching for sites I’d never find otherwise, and it’s pretty good for that – though each change along the way has made it a little less user-friendly – Stumblevideos used to be really easy – they’re not now.
If you guys want a community, go outside.
@residuetiger – indeed, enjoying the changes
@Tad Chef – I hear you though I don’t agree with all your points. I too enjoy Twitter and Tumblr but still am active and enjoying SU.
@Pat – SU is really a lot of fun when first coming upon it, thanks for stopping in.
@Brian – Reddit is also a good one. I would argue that you will get more targeted feedback from an AskReddit than stumbling something, but that’s a different communication mechanism in my mind.
@Missourimule – that’s a good point – plenty of people aren’t into sites like SU for community but rather to discover new things. As far as Stumblevides go – https://video.stumbleupon.com – what isn’t so user friendly?
@Chris – exactly. 🙂
It may appear to some that StumbleUpon has improved. However they took away many of the best features like the “visual editor” and “friends”. I personally know many people who have stopped using StumbleUpon because of this. Too bad they decided to screw up a good thing…
I love Stumble Upon, it’s amazing how we can find some things really interesting in seconds.
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