Bloggles

Stumbleupon - Social Bookmarking? Some don't think so...

Recently, well for the last few months I've been looking more at Social Bookmarking sites. These kind of sites include the likes of StumbleUpon, )As In the title), Digg, Reddit and many more. Even Yahoo has a bookmarking feature.

I've also come across many blogs and sites descri bing effects like 'The Digg Effect. Prviously this was the 'Slash Effect' so it's not something that is new. To give a basic view of what it is: When a story is submitted to sites similar to those mentioned an extrordianry amount of traffic can be generated in a very short time. This can put enormous strain on a server and if not monitored can cause the server to crash.

Returning to Stumbleupon as that is the site I use the most. A quick note for those that don't know. Stumbleupon is a site where you get your own account, you download and install a special tool bar with which you can Thumb up or Thumb down a website page that is served to you randomly via clicking a button called Stumble. You can also write a review of the page that you found either recommending that page or not as you wish.

From your own page you can also visit other people within the stumble system and recommned or not there pages and obviously they can visit yours. It's also a way to see what other peolple have found, what they like or not. Something they dislike may catch your attention and you may like it, so you in turn can give it a thumbs up. Depending on how often a page gets thumbed up or down depends on how often it is supposedly shown.

So thats a basic idea of what Stumbleupon is, basically a 'Review System'. Where you can give a website or page a thumbs up, meaning you like it or a thumbs down, meaning you dislike it. You can even write a small review on the page either positive or negative depending upon your choice. Some people also write there own personal things on what they generally feel or there outlook on things. 

It seems as if some members don't understand that and see it more as a personal blogging system, where you can also Stumble on other sites as mentioned above. Some even use enhancements supposedly to make there pages look more presentable. Other webmasters see it as a way to generate traffic to there own websites. This can be seen as 'Stumble Spam' especailly when they only stumble there own sites.

 As I've described and if you read the about page of stumbleupon, this is not what stumbleupon is or was meant for. Thats not to say you can't leave your personal musings, I find some of them quite funny, others not so funny but it is not a blog. It is primarily a system to 'Bookmark websites or web pages but instead of doing it locally on your own computer for yourself, you are sharing what you find with other people or in other words 'Social Bookmarking'.

Thats as well not to say that you shouldn't utilise the other features of the site such as messaging, being freinds with others but primarily that tool is there to pass a message to someone to sat 'Hey! Look at this! What do you think? Good or bad? Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down? And yes, then secondary to meet new friends, though if you get idiots you have a 'Block' button or option. Personally, I don't want to come across 20 pages a night of why stumbler A has problem with stumbler B and yes I do understand your reasoning, some of them are creepy so block them already and be done with it. What ever it's your own choice I suppose but don't expect myself to return to your page in a hurry (Either page - yours or the creepy's).

As I mentioned above, some just join to spam there own sites. I disagree with that but these are very easily and quickly spotted. First of and easily by that they will not have stubled many pages and most of those are pages from there own site. I see about a 35%/65% breakdown on most I find. I do however have a problem on those who get penalised for playing fair. Ok They do stumble there own pages. Heck theres a lot of stuff on how to use, how great is etc etc blah de blah stumble is etc etc. And most of those will have or will stumble there own sites. But they will also contribute towards Stumbleupon by actually using the system - you'll find this out by the balance in percentage of there own pages stumbled to overall pages stumbled being signifinately lower. I'll be honest I have stumbled my own pages but I've also contributed to the overall schemme of things. 

By my recking the ratio is .7-8% of 2000+ pages stumbled were my own. Even if it was 2% thats only 40 pages out of 2000 (It hasn't been anywhere near that btw). Obviously I'm slightly biased as yes I do want traffic to my own pages but I also believe that I should be fair about it. I think it's a fair amount if less than 1-2% of the pages I stumbled are my own and I would say the same for anyone who uses stumbleupon as a tool like any other 'Bookmarking' sites. As long as they give a fair return and contribute then from apersonal veiwpoint I can't see any wrong in it. (Please feel free to comment on that? Or not as is your choice?).

Stumbleupon is a great tool and it has overall a really good community, it has parts that I disagree with and parts that I'm surprised are there but they are a part of it and if you don't like something then the option is theer for you to say so and Block it. 

Strangely enough this foray into social bookmarking sites is interesting. In the terms of traffic, upto now stumble produces way more than Digg who I have initially directly compared it with. I'm going to be introduing a few others such as Yahoo, Reddit. See what the results of spreading brings in. The other intersting pint is observing how each individual bookmark site works. Stumbleupon is definately more personal and user interactive, whereas Digg seems to be less s. Although it does certain features, it seems less personal and more business like, clinical in some way? Reddit strikes me the same..

So some figures..

in the last 3-4 weeks articles have been accessed around 17k+ times. Take of a percentage from bot activity - say (and being kind) 20-25%? We'll say the latter. leaving 75% as genuine traffic. Of which I'd say 10% is my normal traffic. 25% was from Digg and the rest Stumbleupon. So highest traffic increase as far as I can tell at the moment comes the way of stumbleupon and this is due to how Stumblupon works. 

Intersting exercise and one I'm going to continue to look at.