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The StumbleUpon toolbar is either the best or worst thing to ever happen to my web surfing. This little toolbar that plugs into your browser gives you the ability to be randomly taken to different web pages. To use the stumble toolbar you first input your interests. The web has been broken down into hundreds of categories that you can chose from. When you hit the stumble button you are taken to a random site from one of your chosen categories. Once at that site you can choose to either give the page a thumbs up or thumbs down. Once you start rating sites StumbleUpon will start sending you more pages from people with similar interests who have also given thumbs up or down to the same types of pages that you have.

I currently have 4,599 sites rated positively and probably more than that negatively. I’ve been a member of the StumbleUpon for less than 9 months. Do the math. The toolbar is like channel surfing on crack. You tend to see a lot of things that interest you and it can start to take up a lot of your time.

Another draw back to this service is the privacy issue. Your rankings are on there for anyone to see. This service is a marketers dream. It doesn’t get much easier than this to do target advertising. A while back EBay bought StumbleUpon but they have not done much with it. Personally I always felt this service would be a perfect match for Facebook. Target advertising would be simple, you could share stories and websites effortlessly with friends, it would combine the best of blogging with the best of social networking allowing you to connect with people of similar interests.

In any event, I highly recommend this service. It will really open up the web for you, taking you to all sorts of places you’ve never seen.

I decided to start playing with the MyBlogLog widget. You can see it on the side of the page there(Edit: Not anymore, I tossed it). Essentially it’s a social networking site for bloggers, allows you to connect with other bloggers. One of the hardest things about starting a new blog is overcoming the feeling that you are talking to yourself all the time. Thankfully I have lots of experience doing that, so it doesn’t bother me too much.

Having the widget on the side of the page lets me see if other bloggers are checking out the page and is useful for stalking. Just kidding I can’t overcome the feeling that it is all a blog pyramid scheme though, adding other blogs to your friends list, having bloggers visit your blog in exchange for you visiting theirs. It is funny too how the bloggers who use basic psychology tricks, such as thanking people for visiting their page, and asking tons of people to be friends, become the most popular. MyBlogLog taps into that inner need to feel part of a group, and to have a network of people who care about you. In the end social networking is so popular because it connects with a deep need for community and acceptance. Combine that with a voyeuristic ability to pry into others lives, and you can see why it has taken off in the last few years. We all yearn to be popular on some level and to know how others are living their lives. That’s why celebrity rags are so big with a certain segment of the population, vicariously experiencing popularity without taking any risk.

It makes me wonder if social networking will ever merge, or it will continue to splinter into small fiefdoms/communities. The first person who gives people the ability to simply share information between different social networks, carry friends over, etc. is going to be very wealthy. I can’t help but be reminded of a Pulizer Prize finalist book I just finished, The Blank Slate ( I cannot recommend this book highly enough). The Blank Slate addresses how many people in modern society deny human nature. I think if you look closely you’ll see human nature in all aspects of popular internet sites. There are basic needs hardwired into us all, those who make it big on the internet tap into these base desires (think pornographers, or Google {ask a question, have it answered}, or Facebook {look how many friends I have, look at the parties I’m going to….}) . Yeah, I guess that’s the point of this rambling post, if you want to be someone on the internet, think emotionally first, then rationally implement the plan.