Webupon

Some years ago, a web site called “eTour.com” had the bright of idea of connecting users to pages they might find useful. Instead of having to go to a search engine and try and try again to find a particular topic or set of topics, one would go to eTours.com, sign up, chose interests, and have sites “delivered” to their browser.

Page after interesting page would appear click by click. One could spend days simply clicking through eTour. Alas, eTour went the way of other “before its time” innovations.

There seemed no understanding of how to get revenue, though some of the sites were commercial, there were not enough of them.

StumbleUpon is an “updated” version of eTour.

Go to StumbleUpon.com , enter your preferences, down load the tool bar, then press “stumble”. You will be brought to sites you should enjoy.

Depending on how eclectic your tastes you can go from a serious article on Iraq to haunted houses, to games, to sports, in no particular order.

You can tweak your preferences so as to get more sites like the one you are viewing, or no more sites as that one.

You have the chance to thumbs up or thumbs down a site, which, if you are the first, allows you to write a short blurb about it for others.

Stumbleupon is crucial for those who publish on the ‘Net.  The right topic can get you hundreds of view from the Stumble community. For it is a community where you can make contact with those who share your interests.

You can send and receive personal messages, view likes and dislikes of those you add as friends. When you encounter a topic you think someone would like, if their email address is not in the “send” section, you can add it.

The pleasure of sending a topic to another via Stumbleupon can not be over emphasized. One simply goes to the tool bar, clicks “Send”, up comes all the addresses you have entered. Select your recipient and up pops a little box in which you can add a comment. Far easier and more convenient than copying the URL and sending an email.

StumbleUpon has become one of those, “how did I survive before it?” sites. Hopefully, unlike eTour it will not disappear.