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Monday 23 January 2012

StumbleUpon: 10 Tips and Tricks for Power Users

By at Mashable: 
Thousands of websites are created every day, yet sometimes the Internet feels a bit stale. How do you filter through all of the junk when you want to discover something new?
StumbleUpon is a site that randomly shuffles through websites, curating content and information specifically for you. Since its start, the site has surpassed 20 million users, and continues to be a dominant source of traffic for the world’s top social media sites.
According to StumbleUpon, the site delivers more than 1.2 billion recommendations per month, and users spend seven hours per month stumbling. Most surprisingly, according to this infographic, the average stumbling session lasts 69 minutes.
Those numbers might seem a bit overwhelming, especially if you don’t have that kind of time to devote to the site. However, there are a few things you can do ahead of time, and while stumbling, that’ll provide you with the best sites specific to you. Here are 10 ways to get the best stumbles

1. Plan Ahead
If you take the extra steps in the beginning to completely fill your profile, you'll have a better experience. The more customized you make it, the better results you will see when stumbling




2. Interests
Fill out your interests. That's how StumbleUpon will know exactly what you like. Not sure what to put? There's a "Discover Interests" page that suggests general topics, such as arts or crafts, that you might fancy.






3. Channels
On the Discover page, you'll find a "Channels" tab that lets you filter through various RSS feeds of popular brands, people and websites.



4. Be Specific
You can also narrow it down to an even more specific category of interest. For example, if you want to stumble Great Danes, type it in the search bar at the top left.


5. Give Your Honest Opinion
Each vote up or down helps the website cater to your personal interests. Don't be afraid to vote down on a website; it'll help cancel out the ones that are similar

6. Specific Stumbling
If you've found a website you'd like to explore further, click next to the thumbs up arrow to stumble one specific site. If you want to stumble through the ones you've liked already, go to your profile under your photo and click "Stumble My Likes."



7. Filtering
Want to check out strictly funny videos, like this epic speech from a first-time biker? Under "Ways to Stumble" on the tool bar, the "Modes" option that lets you filter different mediums, such as photos, videos or news. You can also browse your followers and sift through your interests.


 8. Friends
Interested in what your friends are stumbling? Connecting with people who have the same interests as you also helps personalize your experience on the site. You can also view the stumbles your friends have liked by going to their profile and clicking the "Stumble My Likes" button


9. Sharing
Found a cool photo or idea you want to share? Click the speech bubble on the toolbar, and you can post to any of your social media sites. You can also leave a comment on the page for anyone else who stumbles upon that site.


10. Look Back at Past Stumbles
Once you start liking several different posts, it can be difficult to backtrack, which is where the "thumbs up" also comes in handy. Looking for that cool view of Paris you stumbled upon? It's logged in, along with all of your other stumbles in your profile.

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