Over 17 million visitors go to StumbleUpon.com every month. The social media site, which allows users to randomly explore the Web, has just been re-branded and updated with several new features.
The new version of StumbleUpon will make it easier for users to discover content on the Internet. This is the first time in almost a decade that StumbleUpon has gone in for major changes to their site.
StumbleUpon’s homepage now has a new design as well as anew logo. The earlier blue and green logo has been replaced by this orange and white one.
An Explore / search box on the top right hand corner of the homepage allows users to type a search term or select one from the drop-down menu that appears when typing to discover content related to that topic. These “Channels”, which are now emphasized a lot more on the new homepage allow users to focus on subjects of their interest rather than randomly stumbling across the web.
Redesigned StumbleUpon homepage listing Channels of interest
User profile pages have also been overhauled completely. The new profile layout once again focuses on content discovery, making it easier for visitors to a profile to view and stumble web pages that the user liked. Following users and making new connections is also a lot easier now with the new profile layout.
StumbleUpon user profile
One of the most important updates, though, is the change to the Stumble bar. The toolbar, which can be used with most modern browsers, is still the most popular way for users of the site to discover new content. It contains the same features as before along with a more obvious marker highlighting “Sponsored” stumbles via the Paid Discovery advertising platform, thereby making it easier for users to differentiate sponsored sites from organically referred content.
One of the main reasons for this redesign is the huge growth that StumbleUpon has witnessed on mobile. They have seen a growth of 800% year on year and they wish to give their users a better experience that is reflected across all platforms.
Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon’s CEO, told Fast Company, “We’re doing a complete re-launch of the site, and a lot of it is inspired by our mobile experience”.
StumbleUpon continues to remain the dark horse of social media. The site doubled its user numbers since 2010 to cross 20 million users in October 2011 and is still counted as one of the largest referrers of social traffic in the USA, in spite of its user base being a fraction of that of Facebook.
