Feb 0918
I Love the Serendipity of Twitter and StumbleUpon
February 18th, 2009
Many of my friends and family ask me, “what’s your favorite site?” Recently, my answer has been “Twitter and StumbleUpon.” I love these sites, I keep them open all day long in my browser, and I tell everyone about them.
I can give you all kinds of reasons why I love Twitter. It’s terrific for knowing what my friends are up to, it’s a great way to promote my company and blog, but most of all, I love the crazy variety of sites and pages I learn about. My favorite tweeters are people who introduce me to new sites, interesting statistics, gorgeous photos, and news articles I would otherwise never chance upon. One of my favorite tweeters is Guy Kawasaki. Some of the recent gems I learned about from Guy are: 9 resistance-boosting foods and ingredients to help you win the cold war, 50 of the world’s best food blogs, and 10 evolution stories Darwin would love. I suspect that Guy spends all day trolling the Web or has a vast staff that does same and then he tweets the coolest and most interesting of his finds. Thanks, Guy!
My other love is StumbleUpon. Here’s how it works. You create a profile, indicate your interests, then download the StumbleUpon Web plug-in, which then adds a new toolbar to your browser. From your browser, you press the Stumble! button and get taken to a seemingly random site that others who share your interests have given the thumbs up. You then have the option of giving the site the thumbs up or down, or you can do nothing. Over time, StumbleUpon is supposed to learn what you like, based on your special interests AND the sites that you have given the thumbs up. While having my soup at lunch yesterday, StumbleUpon took me to: the ReadPrint free online library, gorgeous black and white photos of animals from Nick Brandt, and Newsmap, which lets me access news headlines from around the world. BTW, StumbleUpon reportedly has over 7M users and is driving an enormous amount of traffic to sites worldwide. Be sure to check your usage reports to see if StumbleUpon is sending visitors your way.
I don’t know about you, but until recently, I felt like I was in a Web browsing rut. I went to the same sites every day and I wasn’s straying from my normal surfing routines. Twitter and StumbleUpon have introduced me to new sites and new perspectives. God bless all this user-generated content!
February 23rd, 2009 at 12:13 pm
Ok, so you’ve definitely got me hooked on StumbleUpon. I love that I can find great information from random cooking tips to basic html hints. Thanks!!