What is the Best Website for Me?
A flowchart that will help you decide which is the best website for you.
Tags: 4Chan, Best Website, Digg, Flowchart, reddit, stumbleupon, Tumblr
StumblePics: StumbleUpon for Flickr Photos
Here’s a new way of browsing and viewing photos, through StumblePics. The service is like StumbleUpon but only focused on photos. StumblePics makes use of photos found on Flickr and can be viewed in high quality.
The photos that appear on Stumblepics are not entirely random like in StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon displays websites and images based on the categories that you provided. In StumblePics, you need to provide the keyword every time you want to use the service. This way, you’ll get to change keywords if you want to view a different set of photos.
From time to time you’ll get a message saying that StumblePics has encountered some trouble displaying the image and it’s probably Flickr’s fault. When this happens you can simply reload the page to get your chance to view the photo.
This is a great alternative in viewing Flickr photos based on tags that interests you. The great thing about this service is the fact that you’ll get the high quality image right away. You won’t have to browse pages of Flickr just to get to the high quality images that you are looking for.
Tags: flickr, images, Photos, StumblePics, stumbleupon
TumblUpon: Stumble Tumbler Posts
Tumblr has a new feature experiment called TumblUpon which is quite similar to the popular social bookmarking site Stumbleupon. The feature will recommend different posts found on Tumblr based on your interest.
All you need to do is head to the tumblr.com/tumblupon address and the toolbar will appear. You can start “tumbling” random tumblr posts from there. Although it functions like the popular social bookmarking site, unlike Stumbleupon, the tumblupon toolbar does not have a thumb up/thumb down button and bookmarking feature. It will just display a random post from other Tumblr users and it doesn’t even change the URL every time you make a “tumbl.”
The toolbar contains the Tumblupon button which will bring you to a random blog post. It also displays a small avatar and the name of the blog that you are currently visiting. Aside from that, a join Tumblr button also exists on the other side of the toolbar.
This is a great way of discovering blog posts made by other Tumblr users. It’s also a great way of promoting blog posts on your Tumblr account and a clever way to promote Tumblr to non-users. If you’re up for some blog stumbling, check out the tool and discover blogs posts you don’t normally see or read anywhere else.
Tags: Blog Discovery, stumbleupon, Tumblr, Tumblupon
StumbleUpon: New Site and a Toolbar that Lets you Stumble Anywhere
StumbleUpon, the popular traffic generating and website discovery tool just released a new format for their website. The main page that you see in the screenshot now displays recommended sites with five stars ranking in SU.
Now you can use Stumbleupon on any browser by using their virtual toolbar. There is still an option to use the SU toolbars if you are IE and Firefox users but it is not entirely necessary anymore. You do not need to register in order to start stumbling but if you want to save the pages that you liked or rated, it will ask you to create an account. I also noticed that that if you are doing stumbles without an account, the pages that they will display on your stumbles are the top rated pages. In order to get pages from sites based on your selected categories, you still need to sign-up.
If you’re a StumbleUpon user and want to view their new website and check out their new toolbar, I would recommend using a different browser. There are reports that it’s still not appearing on everyone’s browsers. When I try to access their website using my Firefox with the SU toolbar installed, it brings me to the old site but if I access it using Chrome, the new design and toolbar appears. It sort of detects the browser that you are using or if you have a toolbar installed and will display the appropriate design based on the browser or the presence of a toolbar.
This is a big move for StumbleUpon. Non Firefox and IE users can now enjoy the full SU experience without having to install a toolbar. It would mean more users for them and less hassle for other browser users. I still prefer using the Firefox toolbar but this is great for people using browsers like Safari, Opera or Chrome. Enjoy Stumbling.
Tags: social network, stumbleupon, toolbar
StumbleAudio: Stumbleupon for Music
StumbleAudio is the Stumbleupon for music lovers with over 2 million available tracks for you to stumble. Judging from the name of the site, the idea was generally taken from Stumbleupon. StumbleAudio is like the “I’m feeling lucky” of music search sites.
StumbleAudio does not function like Stumbleupon in every way. You do not need to install a browser plugin in order to use the service. You can do your music stumbling in the StumbleAudio page. This is managed by flash, since stumbling music is so much different from stumbling webpages and websites. It only takes up a small space and a little flash. You have to register for an account though in order to rate tracks and save them in your profile.
You can choose a genre that you wish to stumble. Once you start stumbling, a random music will automatically play along with some information like album cover, artist and of course the title of the song. You can also browse and play the songs in the stumbled album and rate the track according to your liking. A thumbs up and thumbs down button (Like in StumbleUpon) is used for rating tracks. There is also a quick share button which will automatically copy the track URL to your clipboard.
This is another great site for discovering music semi-randomly. A search bar is provided if you like to filter your stumbles by the keyword(s) you enter. The service also allows you to make quick purchase of the playing track from iTunes, Amazon, PayPlay and CD Baby. Check it out and start audio-stumbling.
P.S. And, yes, artists do get paid when their songs are played on StumbleAudio.
Tags: Music, music discovery, recommendation, songs, stumbleaudio, stumbleupon, tracks
StumbleUpon Shortcut Keys for a more Efficient Stumbling
StumbleUpon is a cool bookmarking service for discovering new websites, but the downside of it is that it can eat up a lot of your time. Some people use StumbleUpon to kill some time and some use it as a resource for finding new stuff in the internet. If ever there is something interesting happening in the World Wide Web, chances are you can find it in StumbleUpon, which will depend on the amount of rating it gets from its users.
This is just a quick tip for StumbleUpon users for a more efficient stumbling. Instead of pushing the Stumble Button in your toolbar, using the StumbleUpon shortcut keys will save you some time . You might find the keyboard shortcut keys easier to use than clicking the toolbar button. Aside from saving a few seconds per stumble, the shortcut keys will also let you use StumbleUpon without the toolbar which eats up your browser space. You can easily hide it in your browser’s view option menu or use another shortcut key (Ctrl +F11).
To enable shortcut stumbling, just head over to the Tools Menu of StumbleUpon and select the Toolbar Options. Go to the Shortcuts Tab and put a check on the Enable Stumbling shortcuts check box. The default settings of the keys are as follows:
Stumble: Alt +`
Rate “I like it” (Thumbs Up) : Alt +1
Rate “Not for Me” (Thumbs Down): Alt +2
Tag / Untag: Alt + /
View Reviews: Alt +3
Toggle Toolbar (show or hide the StumbleUpon Toolbar): Ctrl +F11
You can also change the shortcut keys to your liking depending on what you are comfortable with. If you are a StumbleUpon user, you can add me to your list of Stumbling Friends. Enjoy Stumbling.
Tags: keyboard, keyboard shortcut, Shortcut, stumbleupon
