StumbleUpon relaunches: No browser toolbar necessary

by Brad Linder Oct 1st 2008

StumbleUpon may be one of the most innovative social website discovery services around. But the service has always had one major stumbling block: users needed to sign up for accounts and install a browser toolbar. And some percentage of potential users are just never going to take those steps.

Now StumbleUpon has removed those restrictions by rolling out a new version of the site that works without a browser toolbar. Just visit StumbleUpon and click on any web page to start stumbling. A JavaScript toolbar will show up in your browser window. You can find popular new web sites by hitting the stumble button, give stories a thumbs up, or rank them. If you have a StumbleUpon account you can also save pages. If not, hitting the save button will bring up an account registration screen.

It's also easier to find web sites from the main StumbleUpon page thanks to new categories like News, Art, Computers, Music, and Technology.

You can still use the toolbar if you like. But with the new StumbleUpon, it's no longer necessary.

[via WebWare]

Update: As C.K. Sample points out, the new toolbar-free StumbleUpon seems to be a ways off. When you visit the page, you will indeed find a JavaScript based toolbar that lets you stumble pages. But only if you're not logged into your account. When you click the stumble button, you're shuffled through a small group of pages, not the full StumbleUpon universe. And there's no way to save pages as favorites.

Tags: social-bookmarking, social-news, stumbleupon

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Brad Linder said 11:06AM on 10-01-2008

It's available now. Just click on any of the recommended sites to get started.

Bond said 11:12AM on 10-01-2008

I see the demo toolbar when I click on one of the sites on the front page (I am logged in). I don't see anyway to stumble while logged in without the toolbar though.

This doesn't look like a big change. There have been bookmarklets (http://dreamcore.home.comcast.net/~dreamcore/toolbarless/) around for a while the provided this same functionality.

This article is misleading. :(

Brad Linder said 11:16AM on 10-01-2008

Having a third party bookmarklet is not the same thing as having an official StumbleUpon feature that lets you use the service without installing any software.

What exactly did you find misleading in the article? There's a picture showing what the new JS-based toolbar looks like and a description of how it works.

Bond said 11:06AM on 10-01-2008

When is this rolling out? I just checked stumbleupon.com but there is no mention of no-toolbar stumbling and no Javascript toolbar appears on any of the pages.

Robert H said 11:31AM on 10-01-2008

I am having the same issue as Bond. No magical javascript toolbar is appearing if I am logged in. I hope they fix this soon since it looks like a nice feature. Just not very useful if it only works when not logged in :)

TurboFool said 1:01PM on 10-01-2008

I'm having the opposite problem. Seems pointless to me to have it if you ARE logged in. I have the toolbar in my Firefox, what do I need with part of my real estate being taken up to a second, less-useful toolbar? I do like that it can work from other browsers now such as Chrome, or Skyfire, but in some ways the new interface is doubling up on functionality I already have in the toolbar. Is the idea now to make those of us who use the toolbar stop using it?

dashal said 7:33AM on 12-23-2008

I am having the same issue as Bond

dashal said 7:33AM on 12-23-2008

I am having the same issue as Bond.

dashal said 7:34AM on 12-23-2008

There's also SiteHoppin, which does toolbar-free stumbling since last year. Of course, they are 2 different animals.

dashal said 7:34AM on 12-23-2008

Shin Eun Kyung as Seo Eun Young

Rarst said 1:27PM on 10-01-2008

As far as I understood it's only live for first batch of users at moment. They are going to switch rest slowly.

I am also getting old version of everything at moment.

Victor Agreda, Jr. said 3:29PM on 10-01-2008

It magically appeared for me the other day, and I welcome SU into the 21st century. I hate toolbars!

Zedomax said 11:54PM on 10-01-2008

There's also SiteHoppin, which does toolbar-free stumbling since last year. Of course, they are 2 different animals.

Brent said 6:15PM on 10-03-2008

This is a very interesting development; I have tried several times to convince Google to offer something like this. Granted, most of us who read this site are geeks who have tricked-out our browsers with all kinds of cool stuff. Geeks don't need this, but a lot of people don't even have their own computer... it's called poverty. These people still like to use a computer when they can, at libraries, coffee shops, etc. So a JS-toolbar is a very good thing for those folks. Making services available to the broadest possible audience is a good thing.

Quick Online Tips said 2:06PM on 10-05-2008

Rarst, for those who do not have the toolbar activated yet, you can join the Beta Stumbleupon group and try out the toolbar right now.

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