"What if I Stumble?"

One of DC Talk's songs asks, "What if I stumble, what if I fall?" The line takes on a new meaning for those of us trying to figure out just what "StumbleUpon" is.

I'd heard about StumbleUpon; I think I actually joined a year or two ago. Not that I knew what "joining" meant. Didn't really have time to figure that out. I thought: Cliff notes on what's so cool about this website would be nice. So, I'll try to explain in a nutshell. Or maybe a coconut shell. (I can get carried away...)

To quote The New York Times: "As you 'stumble' from site to site, you will feel as if you are channel surfing the Internet, or rather, a corner of the Internet that is most relevant to you."

You may wonder why it would be important to whittle down the internet to what's "most relevant to you". I can give one example: Foodbuzz! Oh, it's an interesting foodie website. Certainly moving up in the Alexa ratings. I've even met a few exceptionally cool cooks there. But now that I have all kinds of "friends" on Foodbuzz, my inbox gets inundated with messages. They won't just disappear; they only increase in volume. I might find time once a month to check through those posts, finding a few of interest. But I have to manually delete the other 496 messages, just so I can start fresh. By next month, I'll have 500 more messages!

This is where StumbleUpon comes in. If I have selected a few choice sites to "stumble", StumbleUpon's mechanics can get a feel for what's apt to interest me. Should I feel adventurous, I might click on the little "stumble" button on my toolbar, and StumbleUpon will generate a few suggested websites that might interest me. How cool!

But the number of social network and bookmarking sites one can join can be overwhelming. Can't a person just do Facebook instead? Well, as we Facebookers know, we will get updates from all our friends whether we need those updates or not. It's great to hear about our friends, but then there's the potential "TMI". And Twitter: It seems a bit random. I go there and chance on the latest Twitterings of my buddies, some of which might be interesting.

But I do find it exciting that, through StumbleUpon, I can "twitter" and add to "facebook", AND stumble! It's becoming my favorite place for inspiration. Sometimes, what I really want is to just get the updates of a few friends who faithfully produce interesting posts full of novel ideas. StumbleUpon is a great place for the timeless stuff. No, not the latest on Justin Beiber or other 24-hour trends. And not that "timeless" means outdated. The latest and greatest show up (like sites on local harvests and CSA deliveries, latest gardening tips, etc.).

That said, I haven't quite found time to post a "stumble this" on my pages... Sigh. But I'm getting there. First things first. For now, I need to go roast some potatoes and slice some beef for some friends' 60th anniversary...