Social Networking Inside Your Browser

posted by Heath Buckmaster on October 03, 2007

Do you stumble?

For the last month or so, I’ve been using a browser plug-in from StumbleUpon. It’s a nice little toolbar (connected to its associated website), available for both Firefox* and Internet Explorer*, that creates social networking right inside your browser.

Usually when I think of social networking I’m thinking about places like myspace*, Facebook*, LinkedIn*, and the like. They are websites you visit, log in, and start interacting with people and provided content. You can do that via many built-in functions like blogs, forums, bulletin posts, or even embedded applications.

Personally, I will admit that I’m addicted to the Scrabulous* game on Facebook. It has given me the opportunity to virtually interact with people from around the world who have a liking for “word art”. If I hop over to myspace, one of my favourite areas to interact with is music. I’ve found numerous independent and emerging artists who offer free musical downloads, and I have then gone on to make purchases of their albums if I like what I hear. The ability to follow that 6-Degrees of Separation to see where it takes me is pretty interesting. But again, these are all websites within my browser, and I’m limited to what those sites provide me, and I’m also limited to who else has chosen to create an account on those same sites.

In other words, I can only network with people who have accounts on the exact same social networking site I’m on. What if I want to network with anyone, anywhere, any time? What if I want to find people who don’t necessarily create accounts on social networking sites, but happen to have a web page out there in the vast internet? That is the value I get from StumbleUpon. With the click of an icon, I can be connected to a veritable cornucopia of pages on topics like artificial intelligence, antiques, jazz, horror movies, the paranormal, and mobile computing. In the easy to manage interest list, I’ve selected hundreds of interests across numerous topics. As soon as I click that browser button, I’m sent around the world to pages that I might find interesting. But that’s not where the value ends, that’s where it begins.

Not only have I found a website that might be interesting (I’ve found a ton of incredibly cool digital photography websites like this), but I’ve also been presented with information on the first person who discovered the website and added it to the StumbleUpon catalogue. Now I can look at other pages that person liked to see if we have more in common (I can then make them an online friend if I want to). But still, it doesn’t end there. Not only have I seen a new website, the person who found it, and all of their other internet discoveries - I’ve also been connected to everyone else who visited that same site and liked it. In an instant my Potential Social Network (PSN) has expanded exponentially.

Now I have access to hundreds of thousands of pages that other people have discovered and enjoyed - and they get access to mine as well, because when I find a page I like I can just click a little “thumbs up” icon to tell StumbleUpon that this is a page worth viewing (or a “thumbs down” icon that says do not show me pages like that again). I write a little blurb about the site if I want, and within hours hundreds of people will be stumbling their way onto that newly discovered page. Instant networking with both PEOPLE and CONTENT. With social networking sites you are limited to the content, people, and applications they provide - not so with stumbling. When the entire internet is your social network, you’re only limited by your interests and imagination.

Give it a try, and see where it takes you.

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Note: I am in no way affiliated with StumbleUpon, nor is Intel. It is a resource/tool that I have personally tested and found to be an interesting way to experience the vast resources available on the internet, and is a new way to look at community building and social networking.

* Website and product names referenced in this post are trademarks and/or copyrights of their respective companies.

Comments (3)

tagged: browser plugins, potential social network, PSN, social networks, stumble, stumbleupon