Wasting Time on the Net With StumbleUpon

Published by simon on April 15, 2009

With the Internet there has always been new and innovative ways to pass (read: “waste”) time on while you’re bored at work or bored at home. Many years ago there was ICQ and forums and Instant Messaging (good thing i didn’t really get into them that much) and then lately we’ve had Facebook, Digg and Twitter and their numerous clones.

As of a few weeks ago I have just found new way to pass my precious time unproductively – StumbleUpon. It’s not new, some people have been using it for years. So what does it do? It recommends you interesting websites as recommended by people with similar interests as you. StumbleUpon will ask you what kind of websites you’re interested in, and further refines it as you use it.

It sounds like a familiar concept with other sites, but I find it works surprisingly well (for me at least). Instead of going to a website to see pings or recommendations, all you need is to download a toolbar then you’re good to go. There are many buttons, but you’ll probably need only 3 – ‘Stumble’ which will bring you to a new page, the thumbs up button for ‘I like it!’ and the thumbs down button.

Everytime you’re bored, just press the Stumble button to find something exciting. If you found a site that is good and want to recommend it to others, press the ‘I like it!’ button. Simple.

So if you notice my blogs not being updated for awhile, you know what I’m doing these days.

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