In August 2005, I was able to Interview the folks
at StumbleUpon. Here is that Interview:
August 11th: Interview With
StumbleUpon.com
Our First Showcase was discovered when I
downloaded Firefox for the first time. I browsed
plug-ins and found an addition called
Stumbleupon. A visit to www.Stumbleupon.com
brought me to a homepage where I could browse
websites in all different categories and give a
review of the site. I was able to get in contact
with Justin LaFrance, VP Business Development at
Stumbleupon.inc, and found out some interesting
things about Stumbleupon via a Q&A with him.
Zoomshare : Justin, what were the thoughts
behind the creation of Stumbleupon.com?
Justin LaFrance: StumbleUpon began as a
new way for web-enthusiasts to find and share
great sites. With StumbleUpon, you can find sites
that you didn’t even know to search for. And
they’re personally relevant, too. Our goal has
been to create a fun, dynamic environment where
people can share and discover the best of
everything the web has to offer.
Zoomshare : The extension for Firefox was
a
great idea, how did that come about?
Justin: Firefox launched as a cutting-
edge, new web-browser offering web-enthusiasts a
powerful tool. Integrating with Firefox seemed
like a natural fit.
Zoomshare :Anything new coming from
StumbleUpon?
Justin:Always! We have a “top secret”
project in the works that will give users with
power of Google with the community and
personality of StumbleUpon.
Zoomshare : Finally, What trends do you
see now that you think will fade in 4-5 years?
What trends will grow?
Justin: When we launched, we were clearly
on the fringe. No one was doing anything similar.
Now, we’re seeing the content-discovery and
community- sharing spaces expand and mature.
StumbleUpon is still a unique service offering
web-enthusiasts an experience not found anywhere
else. But, it’s validating to have other services
with similar ideas come about and become popular.
Over the next few years, we expect “search” to
evolve into a fully personalized service. The big
players (Google, Yahoo!, MSN) are beginning to
catch on to the power of personalized content-
discovery services such as StumbleUpon. It is
only a mater of time before they jump into the
space with their own offerings or by acquisition.
Thank you Justin for your time.
Personalization of search and news will soon be a
huge market. In the future I think newspapers
will come only with the sections you want to read
everyday! It’s possible that inside your
newspaper will be your favorite brand of coffee
and a Lunch coupon just to make your day easier.
Remember if there is any website, company or
people that you think we should interview let us
know.
Also visit Stumbleupon
and register today! It’s easy to set up and free.
There is an awesome plug-in for Firefox, so if
you don’t have the Firefox
browser yet this is a great reason to get it.
