stumbleupon

I track basic web statistics using Google Analytics. For me, the most interesting page is the list of referrers, sites that link to mine. Historically, digg is my top referrer (thanks to Warren), but the past few days I have been noticing links from StumbleUpon. Being curious, I decided to see what StumbleUpon was all about.

Stumbleupon's goal is simple: discover great website. In concept, it isn’t that different from digg or del.icio.us as they use ratings provided by the community to determine greatness. What is unique about StumbleUpon is the randomness and the ease with which you can browse sites.

To use the service you install a browser toolbar that has 3 simple buttons. Stumble! brings you to a new site, the thumbs up expresses your approval and the thumbs down registers a negative vote. With the toolbar you can stumble through one of more user-selected categories, and that is just what I did tonight.

Each site that came up was interesting at some level, and several turned into bookmarks. Here is a sample of what I have stumbled upon so far:

an innovative photoblog (check out the use of flash here and here)
design a virtual kaleidoscope
a web jukebox with a fairly large library
create your own wake-up calls
build a high-quality headphone amplifier
an article about strange ice cream flavors in Japan

and, the spacializer. I’m not sure what it does, but it looks good doing it. I’ve been enjoying stubleupon and I think that you might too.