StumbleUpon On A Roll
July 4, 2006 by Mark Evans
Filed under Business
StumbleUpon has gone from Calgary-based startup to an emerging Silicon Valley superstar almost overnight. The company, which developed a Firefox extension (see reviews here) to help you discover new Web sites, was among 12 companies selected by Web 2.0 domo Michael Arrington to present recently at SuperNova 2006 in San Francisco. The company has come a long way given it was just another struggling start-up desperately looking from some growth capital until one of its founders made a foray to Silicon Valley and hit the proverbial jackpot by attracted by some interest from a few angels. The company has raised about $1-million from a star-studded group that includes Rajeev Motwani, Google advisor; Ram Shriram, an early Google investor and a board memberl; and Lotus founder Mitch Kapoor.
So how does StumbleUpon, which has more than 875,000 registered users, generate revenue? There are currently two vehicles: advertising in which a company gets its Web site inserted into the StumbleUpon’s rotation, or a $20 annual fee that turns off the ads.
Pretty cool service, but the traffic is pretty untargeted…Levi wrote a good post about it here:
http://www.freshbooks.com/blog/2006/06/22/stumbled-upon-stumbleupon/
i have it installed but, frankly, don’t use it much. it has novelty appeal.
I have it installed and I love it. I find interesting sites that I would never find on my own by just clicking on the stumble upon logo. Its a great idea and could be refined more with specialty searchs. It is a filter and a conduit to new sites.
I have been a member of StumbleUpon, for a number of years, and the service has gone from strength to strength.
StumbleUpon has made the task of finding something interesting on the internet as simple as channel surfing, as well as providing an invaluable community based service, it’s rating system means that only the best and most interesting sites are kept.
Not only do you get your own blog that is easy to use and maintain for people of all computer literacy levels.
But you also have immediate access to a great network of people who share similar interests, and direct access to the founders of the service (’unlike others’).
StumbleUpon has changed the way I find great content on the internet and communicate, and it will change the way you find the best and rarest content the internet has to offer.
MarZau
Really ?I installed it and use it all the time . Perhaps you don’t know how to utilize it properly..
It’s useful to me in a variety of ways.
WAY TO GO STUMBLE. ITS MY FAV. THING TO DO ONLINE.
i stumble’d this page.
true story.
How do you think i got here??? Best extension ever, especially for the people who think they’ve seen everything the internet has to offer.
Great service…lots of stuff you’d never find any other way. With millions of sites to snoop through..this aplication makes it easy.
I stumble’d here!!
I love it, when there is nothing to do, or more like nothing I want to do, I stumble and stumble and stumble, lots and lots of intersting websites. Seems like I’m always sending links to friends and they wonder where I found that website. Wondering how might one invest in this company?
I also stumbled this page. True story…
Stumble rocks. How can I invest?
use it for about a year, love it. Stumbled this site.
as did i
i did too
SrumbleUpon is internet crack. I’m using it more than anything else. I love it and it was well worth sending them my 20 bucks.
i stumbled this page as well
I find it *most* useful to me as a way to very quickly and effortlessly send URLs to my friends and associates…. and receive them. This site was stumbled to me by a friend. Text messages are less intrusive than phone calls… less immediately demanding… I can receive them on my own terms. Stumble allows me to receive web pages from friends on these same terms.
Its good and bad.Its privately owned and it has some odd forum rules.That don’t apply to everyone,not cool!They rate your site on it by what others stumblers think G,R,X not cool.A lot try to kiss up to the owners sad.I think if a big company bought it it would improve a lot.For a browsing tool its great!It has some serious brown nosing issues in the forum.Ive been a member over a year.Also they change things and don’t let you know.Also when they work on it and its acting bad they don’t forewarn you of it.
The more you use Stumble Upon the better it gets.
I stumbled here too. I find the service fanktastic! It shows me the best of the web even before the b3ta newsletter arrives (which is today – HUZZAAH!).. Wooyay for me and stumbleupon.
I stumbled here. Fact.
I stumbled here as well. I hope StumbleUpon doesn’t get bought by a large company, because then it opens up to the possibility of being forced to pay for an extension that is so very useful. I’m more than willing to pay for this because I know how much I use it, it’s worth the money for the extra features. But if I was forced to pay just to use it…. I don’t think it would be installed on my computer.
Fantastic service – surfing while missing most of the dross sites. Found some great insight sites and some I would not even think to search for… Brought the web back to life… recommended to lots of friends… means they reciprocate with great stumbles. Good job.
i stumbled on this page !! using stumbleupon … HOWZAT !
I stumbled right to here. What a fantastic concept!This was a great idea. I use it all of the time.I’v found some truly unique websites that I NEVER would have on my own.
Same as JoKeR, stumbled here myself.
Good stuff!
Apparently everyone stumbled here, including me. People find interesting sites on their own. StumbleUpon is like a “Bored” button for the Internet, at least for me. It speeds up the process.
yup i stumbled here too, and i too use it as a boredom button :).
I love it!!! Only had it for a month and can stumble for hours. could be a little more refined,but other than that it’s fine.
I stumbled this web site true story to stumble or not to stumble that is the question. For those about to rock just stumble.
This service can’t be all bad because I “Stumbled Upon” this site too. Plus, I just learned some things about the origin of the company, information I hadn’t come across elsewhere.
Awesome service… very innovative.
I “StumbledUpon” this page as well…!