I mentioned this in class on Thursday, but for those of you who weren't there or are interested in checking out this free tool for filtering and browsing the web, I will post it on here!
StumbleUpon is a free social media tool that allows you to "Stumble Upon" all sorts of user-categorized and tagged websites based on what interests you have submitted to the website as you sign up. When you first sign up, you are asked to select different categories that you are interested in. You can select up to 119 "Interests" out of the huge list of them.
Once your interests are inputted, it's as simple as clicking a button! The website's toolbar or the add-on to your browser if you so choose to install it has a button with the little green and blue "StumbleUpon" logo and it says "Stumble!" next to it. Just click it, and a website that has at least one tag in common with your Interests will show up for your viewing pleasure. Then, when you are done viewing the site, you may choose to click the button "I Like it", "I don't like it", or nothing. If you select "I like it" the site will record it and if you continue to like websites with the same tags, it will start to show you more websites with these tags in them. Also, it will see others who have similar likes as you do and start to show you pages that they have liked as well. Also, you may select the dislike button and the site will do the same thing, only inverse.
Another interesting feature is the ability to have friends that you "follow" on it. For example, a close friend of mine and I share websites via StumbleUpon pretty much daily. All you need to do is click the "Share" button and select the user's name or enter an email address and the website will be sent with a message if you so choose to include one. Also, you can select any user and choose to follow them. For example, if you find someone who seems to have very similar or interesting pages on their profile, you can follow them and it will show you websites that they have seen and liked. Also, if you select a user's profile, there is a small venn-diagram type visualization that will show you the percentage that you two are "alike" in your interests and what you have selected "I Like It" for or not.
Oh, and one last thing that is cool is that you can choose to "Stumble" (Yes, I use it as a verb) a single interest of yours. For example, if you are looking to laugh, you can simply select the "Humor" tab and click "Stumble" and it will only show you websites tagged with "humor." Also, there is a computer science option that I have used in the past to stumble for websites that are relevant to this course and to post those on this very blog!
It is a very useful tool to use for narrowing down the vast majority of websites on the internet and to try to find specifically what you want. I have been constantly informed on current events and all sorts of other internet meme's and such using this tool, and many times it has helped me in my classes! It is completely free, and I would recommend it to anyone who wants to try it out!
Check it out at: www.stumbleupon.com
I started using this website and found it very helpful. It is a great tool to surf the web and find thing that you interested in
ReplyDeleteI have been using stumble for over a year and its amazing the websites I now use daily that I was never aware if before stumble.
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