Stumbling Upon New Websites

The web is a virtual smorgasbord of delicious treats. There are countless websites to explore, even though most of us only visit a select few. For instance, I go to Gmail.com, Facebook.com, Twitter.com, Youtube.com and Vitaminstuff.com almost exclusively. That is only a handful of websites; I wonder what I am missing by going to the same websites and over and over again. Other than finding sites on Twitter and Facebook, I generally only stumble upon new sites by searching something on Google or recommendations from friends.

How do you find new websites?

While it is quite common to go to Google and type in a search term to discover new websites, there are other ways to find websites. In fact, you can type in keywords or view categories to find other sites, and you can read website reviews, find related and similar sites, and talk with people who like the site as well. In addition, you can also bookmark your favorite sites, share your bookmarks with others, and browse other people's bookmarked sites to see what they like. Have you ever heard of such an in-depth process for discovering new websites? If not, then you have probably never heard of StumbleUpon.com.

Stumble Upon New Websites

To start stumbling upon new and interesting websites, articles, videos, photos, and blogs, go to StumbleUpon.com.

You can play with StumbleUpon without having an account, and can search, view, find related sites, and read reviews all day long. If you're like most people, you'll want to create an account as soon as possible, so you can start saving your favorite sites and connecting with other members who have the same interests as you. Creating an account is free. There are many reasons to sign up for an account: to save your settings/bookmarks, to share your discoveries with others, to write reviews, and to connect with others via the StumbleUpon.com social network. After StumbleUpon.com, web browser bookmarking seems archaic.

Searching for Sites

StumbleUpon.com has several set categories, with a slew of sub-categories within each one. You can find new sites by checking out these categories, or by typing a keyword into the 'search' box. For instance, set categories are: news, photos, videos, arts, business, computers, health, fun, lifestyle, music, science, sports and technologies. If you choose 'fun', you'll find a set of subcategories underneath it to choose from, such as animals, bizarre, cars, cartoons, cats, celebrities, crafts, dogs, humor, movies, online games, puzzles, quizzes, satire and tv. If you choose 'health', you'll also find subcategories for aging, alternative health, cancer, diabetes, fitness, nutrition, relationships, running, weight loss and yoga.

There is also a 'search' box that can bring up the exact thing you are looking for with a simple keyword, sometimes browsing the categories can be more interesting and diverse.

To find like-minded users, you can search by interest and tags.

The Toolbar

Going to the StumbleUpon.com website is an easy way to find new sites and interact with the community, but downloading their toolbar makes it even easier.

The toolbar is incorporated into your web browser.

Have a free moment? Click a button to stumble through several new sites within moments. Find a site you love? Make it a favorite with just a click. Want to find sites similar to your favorites, or never again see the type of site you've stumbled upon? Give sites a "thumbs up" or a "thumbs down" to help the site determine what type of sites to bring you in the future.

While the site is a marvelous way to find new websites, be careful; hours can pass while you're searching amazing new worlds on the web.

The author of this article is Tim Moore, who maintains a profile on stumbleupon.