Computer Support Blog

The technology sector is filled with people who appear to never have heard the adage “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”  In the case of websites, especially social networks, programmers who originally design the site tend to strive for functionality over style.  One need only recall the iconic scene from The Social Network wherein Sean Parker and Mark Zuckerberg discuss monetizing The Facebook and come to the conclusion that it was too soon for that.  Cool things aren’t about monetizing.  The people who use websites at their inception and stick with the site do so because there is something enduringly interesting about the site that they cannot find elsewhere on the Internet.

StumbleUpon.com, for a long time, was a site based on function far more than style.  If you haven’t been to StumbleUpon before, you are now too late to see it at its most pure.  StumbleUpon has undergone a facelift.  While the functionality of StumbleUpon has changed very little, the style of it has changed dramatically.

StumbleUpon has been around for ten years and if you have not heard of or been to it, you probably have not been on the Internet and become bored.  StumbleUpon is essentially a portal to other websites that you go to by “stumbling” there.  After establishing your account, wherein you put in a list of things that interest you, you hit the “stumble” button.  StumbleUpon then takes you to websites that match your interests.  If you don’t like what you see at the site StumbleUpon brings you to or you exhaust your interest in that page, just hit the “stumble” button again and StumbleUpon comes up with another webpage!  Yes, StumbleUpon is ideal for people who want to just see what is out there on the Internet.

That is what StumbleUpon was.  In an attempt to better monetize StumbleUpon, executives at the company brought in focus groups to use the site.  Following their use of the site, the founder and CEO of StumbleUpon decided to listen to many of the recommendations of the focus groups.  People who have great ideas or see the merit in being different do not traditionally populate focus groups.  When a company utilizes focus groups, they make existing ideas conform more to market expectations.  That is exactly what has happened with StumbleUpon.

The two big changes with StumbleUpon in its “style overhaul” include a search engine and categories on your front page to make your interests easier to find.  The focus groups told CEO Garret Camp that they wanted to be able to find websites easier using StumbleUpon.  That very idea seems antithetical to the concept of a website called “Stumble Upon.”

StumbleUpon was never about finding sites easy.  StumbleUpon was not trying for the search engine market share any more than Dude, Where’s My Car? was trying to contend for an Oscar; those looking for a business tool did not use StumbleUpon.  It was cool because it was random and fun.

StumbleUpon existed virtually unchanged since 2001.  Even as StumbleUpon became slightly less cool when big companies like Wal-Mart began posting their product sales pages to the site, the site still had a charm and originality found nowhere else on the Internet.  Now, it may be a bit easier to use, but it is less charming.

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