Welcome, Guest

Author Topic: What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011  (Read 4192 times)

Offline beemaster

  • Site Founder
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6457
  • Gender: Male
  • It is my pleasure to bring the forums to you.
    • http://www.beemaster.com
What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011
« on: November 29, 2011, 09:40:50 am »
Sometimes I think we all get stagnant on what we do with the web. As incredibly huge as it is, many people are lucky to visit 100 sites a year and only half of them regularly.

My winner is an add-on called STUMBLE for Firefox or just www.stumble-upon.com if you choose the webpage. Here is a short video http://www.stumbleupon.com/productdemo/

It is a randomiser search engine that you design for your own interests. It is also Oprah's favorite site too, but here is the cool part.

You go there, create an account, it gives you a dozen or so MAIN TOPICS that might interest you, then EACH has sub-categories (often many dozens) to check also. You might say OUTDOORS as a main category and then FISHING, HUNTING, CAMPING, etc., as your sub categories.

You go through each topic building topics that interest you and then update your collect. At this point, every time you click on the stumble button, it will take you to sites that fall under your choices of topics - you can thumbs up or down a page and Stumble learns from your choices.

The amazing thing, in no time you will be traveling to pages you would NEVER find elsewhere. Learn and read things that are of interest to you without the crap that most sites will link you too. There is little to no wasted searches and every page you go to is a new surprise that awaits.

I have used Stumble more than 2 months. Literally I have bookmarked over 100 sites that I visit frequently only because Stumble pointed me toward them, I know I never would have found them otherwise.

I still click that Stuble button in my Firefox Browser more than any other button and it has gotten very good at knowing what I like and what I don't. A nice security feature (to prevent sites from spamming their system) if you don't like a site, just click the thumbs down image and it goes away for good, but if you like it, they take you to a Captcha like page to have you type in a work to varify it isn't a computer boasting about a site. This keeps it a fair playing field.

So www.stumble-upon.com or Firefox Add-on Stumble is my web surfing program of the year. What have you found that has made your Internet more fun or useful????


NJBeemaster my YOUTUBE Video Collection

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Offline BeeMaster2

  • Administrator
  • Universal Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 13493
  • Gender: Male
Re: What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011
« Reply #1 on: November 29, 2011, 12:42:03 pm »
Are you trying to pat your own back?  :-D

Yea this is my favorite site. I use it more than any other.
Jim
Democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb contesting the vote.
Ben Franklin

Offline AllenF

  • Galactic Bee
  • ******
  • Posts: 8192
  • Gender: Male
Re: What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011
« Reply #2 on: November 29, 2011, 03:44:43 pm »
Cool app there John.    I tried it and found this on my first try.  http://www.stumbleupon.com/su/1KWCMU/all-that-is-interesting.com/post/4956385434/the-first-zombie-proof-house 

Offline beemaster

  • Site Founder
  • Administrator
  • Galactic Bee
  • *******
  • Posts: 6457
  • Gender: Male
  • It is my pleasure to bring the forums to you.
    • http://www.beemaster.com
Re: What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011
« Reply #3 on: November 29, 2011, 05:12:50 pm »
lol - wasn't even thinking about Beemaster Forum - but thanks.

I left out that AFTER you create categories you click on just that category and all searches will stick to that topic - good for when you want to learn all you can about a new topic. It also has a users choice entry box, so that you can search on something outside your list of topics. So if beer making comes to mind, just enter that and it uses you previous choices to aim you in the direction you'd likely go rather than normal random searching.

It's been around a long time actually. but you find stuff when you find stuff - this was my jewel for 2011. An example, I chose radio stations and over 200 pages came up with different genre music streaming as well portal stations like Pandora, 8-Trax, last.fm, radio-locator (this is a cool one - type a genre, zip-code, etc and radio-locator list all the stations which have streaming stations anywhere in the world.

That's just one of thousand and tens of thousands of sites which you should find interesting. And if it isn't, you block it with the thumbs down.

Tracey found this online Jigsaw puzzle site http://www.jigidi.com/ now we have about a dozen images that transform into puzzle with hundreds of pieces that other people solve in minites - so really good puzzle doers out there. That is my point, chances are I'm never search or find such a site without stumble.

Lastly, The Stumble Toolbar for Firefox is nice. It offers lots of option and hides away easily. I guess I'm spoiled with 12gig of RAM, I load my Browsers to the hilt and never have a second of slowdown. But I love Firefox Add-ons and use dozens making my surfing fast, enjoyable and never any drag browser resource issues.

Right now, I hVE THE fire.fm another firefox add-on. Like Pandora, shoutcast and others) it plays music in the genre you like through browser interface - yes another line at the top of the browser. But this one I leave hide most of the time under view/toobars - because as song change, a small pop-up box in the lower right corner pops up a few seconds tell what song and group is up next. I'll open the bars if I want the interface or change topics. STUMBLE I leave open most of the time although it also hides away using VIEW/TOOLBARS and unclick.

So thanks Stumble (and AD-BLOCK PLUS - the nets most helpful program I believe, killing all ads anywhere on the next) my stumble has caused me to get my bookmarks in order, I use use X-Marks to sync them with all other PCs in my house and at work and honstest, my machine has become so productive, it is like having a secretary who knows where everything is all the time. I have alway gotten use from my computers, but no productivity, speed and knowledge gained is many times faster.

I swear none of this would be possible without Firefox. I haven't use Internet Explorer in years and never will, for all the reasons the pros tell you not too from hacking and viruses, to lack of open source free add-ons that Firefox and others have.

It's funny how I took 14 main bookmark categories and turned them into over 300 categories I can use to find ANYTHING I have bookmarked (over 700 sites and growing) and site can be found in less than 3 seconds - it is stunning being organized and as told to me by a wise coworker "Good habits are as hard to break as bad!" I'll never go back to being lost in a forest of websites again.
NJBeemaster my YOUTUBE Video Collection

Please enjoy the forum, and if it has helped you in any way, we hope that a small donation can be made to support our FULLY member supported forum. You will never see advertisements here, and that is because of the generous members who have made our forum possible. We are in our second decade as a beekeeping forum and all thanks to member support. At the top right of every page is a donations link. Please help if you can.

Offline VolunteerK9

  • Super Bee
  • *****
  • Posts: 1647
  • Gender: Male
  • Gamecock fan in UT land.
Re: What is you favorite newly discovered website or add-on in 2011
« Reply #4 on: November 29, 2011, 09:52:00 pm »
Ive been using stumble upon for a couple of months now and really like it. Lately Ive been toying with a bagpipe app I found for my iPod. Pretty darned cool-I love the sound of bagpipes. Gives me goosebumps.