I've been getting an increasing number of hits to my websites via this service, so I finally decided to give it a try to see what's up.

The way it works, is that you signup for free, and then you get a "Stumbleupon" toolbar added to your browser. Any website that you go to, you can give it a thumbs-up or thumbs-down. You can also click on a "comment" button which will let you post your own comment, and/or view what other "stumblers" have said about the site. Sites can be sorted by categories, and you can also just click on the "Stumble" button which will take you randomly to highly-rated sites that are in categories that you are interested in. I played with it a bit, and nearly every site it took me to was an extremely interesting one. I could see myself wasting a *lot* of time with this....

I really like this better than Google as far as entertainment value goes. The homepage doesn't look like much, and well, hell, who wants another toolbar? In this case - ME!

This is no hotbar. This toolbar has no adware or spyware, its just pure fun. Click sign up, download the toolbar, and make sure to fill out your profile. It even gives you a Myer's Briggs personality like test that you can enter. (I had the real thing, and this one also said I was an ENTP, so it seems it is right.)

Ok, so what's in it for you? GREAT WEBSITES that you probably never knew existed that are going to be right up your alley. It harnesses the power of social networks and memes to help bring you the best content that you could ever want.

I've turned quite a few people onto it now, and they are all totally loving it.

You can also network with friends, and join groups by similiar interest. You also get your own page, with your interests. For example, I'm skullaria.stumbleupon.com.

Its great for kids too. My son loves to find online games, so I set up his to serve computer graphic content, online games, info on video games, ect - and, as a sneaky mom - I intersperced some science links that I thought he'd like. Its working - he's getting lots of educational games.

You can rate the content you want to see.

The only negatives I can think of are that some people are using x-rated avatars that kids can see and of course, privacy advocates might not like it. Its not terribly nosey, however, mainly you need a screenname and email.

That, and, well, its addictive, but in a good way. Over 203 million stumbles so far. I like to watch the counter. It is growing like wildfire.

StumbleUpon is an interesting tool to browse the web.

This is great. I've discovered more good websites in a week with this toolbar (Firefox only as far as I can tell) than I have in a year with google. Tag stuff, review stuff...even tag yourself to generate more traffic to your own site.