ITS Technology Tips

The concept of Web browsing has been taken to a whole new level with the social website, Stumble Upon.  The most common method of finding new information on the Web is to search for specific items in a search engine such as Google or Ask.com. Stumble Upon enables users to “channel surf” to discover websites, videos, pictures and more based on their interests. By clicking on a button in your browser’s Stumble Upon toolbar, you will be randomly directed to websites that adhere to the interests you specify.  With Stumble Upon, you can tag webpages as well as rate sites the sites you visit with a “thumbs up” or “thumbs down,” which will indicate whether or not you would like to see the site again when you “Stumble.”  You can also store your Favorites online, share sites with friends and meet people with similar interests. 

How to Get Started When you visit the Stumble Upon website you will be prompted to set up an account, which entails providing your email address and selecting a user name.  Once you sign up you will need to select some of your interests then install the Stumble Upon toolbar in Firefox or Internet Explorer.  You can login to Stumble Upon from any computer to access your account.  Keep in mind that you will need to install the toolbar on every computer you use to access all of the features. 

Once you install the toolbar, you can simply click the Stumble button to start channel surfing.  Remember to assign the sites you like with a “thumbs up” to save them to your Favorites.  You may also add sites you like that are not listed yet on Stumble Upon by clicking on the “thumbs up” button when you visit the site.  If you are the discoverer of a website, you will be prompted to tag the site based on a category topic so other users will find the site in a Stumble search. You can also review and recommend the sites you visit. Even if you are not interested in the social networking aspect of Stumble Upon, “stumbling” from site to site is a great way to unearth resources you may have never found otherwise.