Teach42

More often than not, I stear clear of browser bars. Between all my bookmarklets and two or three rows of open tabs, I consider my remaining browser real estate is pretty sacred to me. So as nifty as the Google and Yahoo browser bars may be, I avoid them entirely.

However, I’ve seen many people tout just how incredible StumbleUpon is, so I decided to give it a try. I’ll be honest, I was planning on playing with it for a few minutes and then uninstalling it. But I’d at least give it the ol’ college try.

There are really three key buttons to the browser bar (which does make me wonder why there isn’t a ‘lite’ version). A thumbs up and thumbs down (like Tivo or Siskel and Ebert depending whether you’re a digital native or digital immigrant) and a “Stumble!” button. As you surf, you rate websites with the thumbs up or thumbs down buttons. The more sites you rate, the better StumbleUpon knows your browsing preferences. Then when you’re on a site you dig, you could click on “Stumble!” and it will take you to another site that’s similar in some way. The exact formula is a mystery to me, but what I do know is that the second time I clicked the Stumble button I found a site that I absolutely love.

I don’t remember what I was on, but somehow I Stumbled over to OpenSourceWindows. Basically it runs through all the major applications in windows (and a few not so major ones) and lists a few Open Source alternatives. Don’t worry Mac groupies, there’s a sister site for you too! The site may not be earthshattering, but there’s some solid links in there, and I just happened to StumbleUpon it.

While I’m not sure whether or not I’ll be keeping the StumbleUpon bar in my browser, but if it keeps paying off with sites like that, then consider me sold.

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