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StumbleUpon is an Internet community that allows its users to discover and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. It is a personalized recommendation engine which uses peer and social-networking principles.

Web pages are presented when the user clicks the "Stumble!" button on the browser's toolbar. StumbleUpon chooses which Web page to display based on the user's ratings of previous pages, ratings by his/her friends, and by the ratings of users with similar interests. Users can rate or choose not to rate any Web page with a thumbs up or thumbs down, and clicking the Stumble button resembles "channel-surfing" the Web. StumbleUpon also allows their users to indicate their interests from a list of nearly 500 topics to produce relevant content for the user.[3] There is also one-click blogging built in as well.
StumbleUpon is very easy to use. Since all you need to do is download the toolbar, install it, and pick your topics, you can be up and running in about two minutes. It's not as helpful if you are looking for something specific, but it is a lot of fun and a great time killer

Review - StumbleUpon

StumbleUpon really is very easy to use, and you don't have to do much more than install the toolbar and pick your interests to enjoy it. But you will get the most mileage by befriending users with similar interests and joining groups that correspond to those interests. This will help StumbleUpon do a better job at finding websites that interest you.

As with all social websites, user participation is key. You don't have to participate to enjoy the benefits of StumbleUpon, but they have made it easy to give a thumbs up to websites you like, and a thumbs down to sites you just don't think cut it.

A Few Kinks in the System

Stumble Upon can be a lot of fun, but it is not a great tool if you are looking for something specific. It's better used for discovering new websites you might not have otherwise found.

It's pretty easy to write a review if you are the one discovering the site. The toolbar will pop up a window for you to pick the website's topic and there is a space to write a quick review. But, if the site has already been discovered, you have to click the reviews button and then click the review this page button. It would be nice to have a button in the toolbar dedicated to adding your own review.

Modifying your interests could also be a little easier. You do this by clicking the tools button and choosing update topics, but it can be easy to confuse this with profile preferences.