1,000 stumbles at last |
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Took me the better part of 20 months, but I finally have stumbleupon’d 1,000 websites. StumbleUpon is a toolbar/social network service for giving the thumbs up or down to websites surfed. It’s possible to leave a few comments about each site and then see how many others come along after you. There are also groups on topics and forums. I setup a couple groups: one on blogs and RSS/Atom. The blog one has over 500 people in it now, so I guess that’s pretty decent. Feel free to join both and start stumbling.
A few negative things have come out about StumbleUpon, mainly that they might be some kind of spyware, or be easy prey for spyware in certain instances:
Stumbleupon installs a toolbar that includes functions designed to help users navigate the web. While browsing the Internet, users may witness pop-up ads which link to anything from legitimate applications to known spyware vendors. While the Stumbleupon program in itself is not malicious, it is usually installed in an uncontrolled fashion by the user and may be seen as counter-productive in a corporate environment.
I haven’t had any problems with SU in this regard and in the SU docs (FAQ) they clearly explain their position on being any kind of spyware:
No. Stumbleupon does not automatically collect any personal or system information from your computer. Stumbleupon records information you explicity provide such as your ratings of websites. This is necessary to share the sites with other community members and improve your future stumbles. Associating personal information with your userid, such as a name, nickname, or webpage is entirely voluntary and not required to use the StumbleUpon toolbar
Along the way I’ve discovered some really cool websites through other netizens with similar interests and I’ve shared a few of them at this blog over those 20 months. Admittedly, I don’t use StumbleUpon like I used to, mainly because there are so many other places/ways to find other sites, but I’ll still stumble once in awhile and keep on sharing the cool stuff.
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I tried StumbleUpon not too long ago but my antivirus/internet security program, for some reason, didn’t like it. I ended up wanting to remove it when I started to notice too much of an increase in spyware when I would perform a system scan. And, you’re right, there are too many other choices for finding sites.
btw…recently I started a new weblog and made a couple of changes. The main change being that I started getting a bit paranoid. It’s explained in a little more detail on the site.
Comment by Janine — August 20, 2005 @ 5:04 am PST
I have just recently discovered SU and I’m delighted about it. If there is any spyware it doesn’t come from SU but from the pages you visit.
Anyway, the point of my comment is to find out what other “great sources” of finding those cool sites. I have really never so far seen anything as interesting as SU but would be delighted to know there are better ways to find great pages.
Tx
Comment by Enrique — October 31, 2005 @ 6:59 am PST
[…] Back in 2004-2005, I used StumbleUpon (SU) almost every day. Then, somewhere around 750-1,000 rated stumbles I started seeing a lot of the same sites. A few browser upgrades later and I no longer installed/upgraded the StumbleUpon toolbar, nor have used it much. […]
Pingback by Make You Go Hmm: » StumbleUpon second wind — May 22, 2006 @ 9:51 am PST