Useful Site: StumbleUpon

I came across this site while looking through various plug-ins available for the Firefox browser. It's a wonderfully addictive site for people that are curious about far too many things and behave like they have some mild version of Attention Deficit Disorder.

If you're using Firefox great, you can install the small icon bar and easily access the site's functions. If you're using Internet Explorer, or another browser you cannot install the Stumble! button directly on the toolbar, but you can still use the primary Stumbleupon site to get the same functionality.

With Firefox plug-in installed the Stumble! icon will be displayed in a new toolbar.

With or without the plug-in you goto the Stumbleupon site and create a minimally intrusive account and select areas of interest to you. A partial sampling of my topics of interest is: Astronomy, Board Games, Comic Books, Computer Hardware, CyberCulture, Electrical Engineering, Gay Culture, Graphics Design, Mathematics, Open Source, etc., etc.

Now when the urge to surf strikes you hit the Stumble! button and you're taken to a site that other Stumblers have visited and rated a "Thumbs Up" within your areas of interests.

At this new page you can review it and give a rating or a review if you wish. My surprise is the high quality and relevancy of the provided sites. I estimate 5 out of 6 sites keep my attention and rate a "Thumbs Up".

I had to remove some of my topics. It's was just too much cool stuff to read. I found myself wasting hours and saving dozens of bookmarks every day. Much like my experience with Tivo, you can be overloaded with riches.

StumbleUpon is also supporting somekind of social networking system. It allows you to select "friends" that share your interests. You can see a "friend's" topics of interest and look at the list of sites they have rated or reviewed. Before you can contact other you need to setup a brief profile with an photo. There doesn't seem to be any rule about it being a picture of you with a recognizable face. Many people use random images and avatars.

I haven't yet explored this function in detail. I'd love to hear about your experiences.

(My ID at StumbleUpon is "drambear")