Forget Surfing... Let's Stumble!

The Method of Researching that Makes Search Engines Obsolete

Nichole Williams
Yeah, that's right. My surfing days are done. No more Googling, Yahooing... or... well whatever those other guys are out there. I'm stumbling instead. Stumble Upon is an awesome resource. When you download and restart your internet browser, it will install a button bar at the top of your browser for you. Once you've signed up for a free account you can begin stumbling.

Stumble is nice because it allows you to select categories that interest you. I tend to stumble across a lot of art, design, photography, tech, game, and history sites because those are my chosen topics. When you hit the Stumble button it pulls up random pages geared towards your interests from all across the web. Search engines pull such a contrived variety of pages when you run a search, because they are limited to the keywords that you may happen to think of at any given time, but Stumble is unlimited, and with the user rated feature, you're sure to come across very few disappointing pages. If you happen to have a page you know and love that has not already been stumbled, you need only give it a thumbs up, write a quick review of it, and it is added to the list for other people to Stumble. Which means that you can add your own site to begin traffic generation as well. If people like your site it will climb in the ratings and earn even more traffic.

Stumble works so well in fact, that my bookmarks have grown exponentially! I have found a wealth of information and fun sites using Stumble Upon. Not to mention Stumble has become quite addictively amusing. I never know what types of art I will come across, what manner of web-games, hacks, tips, or tricks, amongst other odd subjects of interest. I find that a lot of topics I normally research, I can dig up more quality information on over utilizing a normal search engine, and generally there's more of a wealth of information to be had. Stumble in this sense becomes a bit of an exciting treasure hunt.

I've found everything from singing horses, HTML color code coordination, cows carrying guns (look out McDonald's; the bovines are revolting and they're mad!), games with lemmings and falling sand, to articles on Lucid dreaming, e-books, and stunningly beautiful photography and art. I come across sites and resources many times I would not otherwise think to search for.

Amongst these I have also found tutorials on photshop editing and a variety of other mind twisting, illusion making ways to trick the human eye. The resources and subjects are absolutely limitless.


I did say my bookmarks have grown exponentially, because there are just some sites I've found that I can not live without having them directly at my fingertips. However I've also found that anytime I rate a site that I like, it saves the link to my account for future reference.

In addition you can get your own sites added to stumble, establish connections with other stumblers, and get other sites that have not yet been stumbled out there for other people to look at. If there's a blog you enjoy, but is yet relatively unknown… Stumble it! If you come across new content, new resources, anything that you feel it would benefit other people to see, all you have to do is click your stumble rating button, and submit a quick review of it so that other people can stumble it too. With the variety of topics available, just about any site will fit in the stumble themes.

I'm certainly glad I found this resource. I have come across more information in 3 days than I have in probably almost 2 months. Take a look at it. Try it.

As for me, my surfing days are done now. I'll be Stumbling from now on.


Published by Nichole Williams

I am a 30 year old divorcee. The single mom of three challengingly brilliant children, and a woman finding my voice.  View profile

  • Stumble gives you access to a wealth of information.
  • It is a good way to drive traffic to your site.
  • Rating sites helps bring more people to them.
A former Ph.D. student in electrical engineering at Stanford University, Yang and classmate David Filo founded Yahoo in 1994 as a way of keeping track of their personal interests on the Internet. Within months, they converted Yahoo to allow users to search the Internet and to create customized lists of sites. Yahoo developed into a major web portal and an $11 billion business within four years. Yahoo continues to be among the top Internet directories and search engines.

1 Comments

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  • Theresa Suttles2/23/2011

    Good article. I'm just learning to use Stumbleupon, and this was helpful. Thank you.

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