SEO BLOG

Can you use StumbleUpon without the toolbar? Yes, of course you can, but why should you and how can you do it? Aren’t there limitations? What are the benefits?

Why should you stop using the StumbleUpon toolbar?

1. It can mess up your browser: My Firefox was broken ever since I installed the StumbleUpon toolbar. I just couldn’t believe it! A multimillion company owned by eBay lets you download a broken extension for Firefox? Impossible, I thought. Every second time I shut down FF it would loose it’s customization on next start up. So I had to use MozBackup daily. To no avail in some cases. Loosing precious time and sometimes data. Finally I disabled the StumbleUpon toolbar and since then it did not happen anymore!
2. StumbleUpon is addictive, time consuming and distracting: You end up stumbling sites for 2 hours in a row instead of working.
3. Sadly StumbleUpon will not honor your active participation. The contrary is the case, the more you are involved the more you run the risk of loosing traffic by automatic filters or people who hate you based on your profession for instance. So contributing too much is rather working for free for eBay. Let others stumble you and the effort vs traffic ratio is much more positive for you.

How can you use StumbleUpon without the toolbar?

1. Disable it in the Firefox extensions list with a right-click on “Disable”
2. Go to the StumbleUpon log-in page and log in. If you do not remember your password let SU send it to you, just enter your nick and it will be send to the mail address you registered with.
3. Now you can perform all actions you are used to on your SU profile, add friends, read and send messages or review pages others have stumbled.

Are there or what are the limitations of using SU without the toolbar?

1. You can’t click “thumbs up or down” on a page
2. If you review a page you found through browsing StumbleUpon your review will lack a thumbs up either
3. You can’t send discovered pages directly to your friends
4. You can’t just stumble by clicking the stumble button 

What are the benefits if there are any?

1. Curbing the time wasted on StumbleUpon, you browse the site lie any other so it’s not addictive anymore.
2. You can stumble pages and “like them” with a thumbs up on sites that offer “add to StumbleUpon” buttons
3. Stumbling pages by clicking those buttons is easier, you don’t have to choose a category, language or whether it’s adult content or not
4. No distraction while working of course
5. Less effort more choices
6. You do not end up being filtered or hated for being too active (or a spammer)

To discover new sites or news stories in accordance with my interests I prefer Yoono (new sites) and Spotback (news) or other social browsing services anyways. Less effort more automated, more anonymity.