Stumble Stumble

StumbleUpon is a search engine of sorts that works on the "let what you're looking for find you" principle. It takes Google's "I feel lucky" concept to new heights. Instead of typing in what you're searching for, you just click the big "Stumble" button, and the site serves up pages that it thinks you want to see.

Sound stupid? That's what I thought when I first heard about it a couple of years ago. But when a couple of dagblog posts were recently stumbled upon by gazillions of users, I realized that StumbleUpon had pretty good taste, and I decided to investigate.

I was pleased to discover that it's pretty cool. The websites you meet at StumbleUpon aren't completely random. First, they've been filtered by millions of other stumblers. Second, the recommendations are based on the pages and topics that you've previously indicated that you like. So if you recommend a site on German dwarf porn, for example, than you'll get recommendations that have appealed to other stumblers who like German dwarf porn. Of course, you get crappy recommendations too, but if a site doesn't suit your...um...tastes, you just click that big stumble button, and you're off on your next Internet adventure.

So here are a few of the cool sites that I've stumbled upon. Or at least those that I choose to share with you people:

Icon War: Watch Windows icons shoot the shit out of each other. Even Mac users can appreciate it.

The difference between men and women: LOL

Star Wars Asciimation: Almost the entire original Star Wars done with ASCII (text) characters. You won't want to watch the whole thing, but it's an artistic feat. Sort of.

God's Frequently Ask Questions page: Pithy

George Carlin's Religion is Bullshit sketch: Obviously, StumbleUpon thinks it has me pegged. It does.

You Suck at Photoshop: An addictive 10-part series about a depressed guy who offers condescending photoshop lessons as his life falls apart. Hilarious. And I don't even know anything about photoshop. (Don't recommend this one though, or you'll start to get a ton of graphic-designer-geek pages.)

Where the Hell is Matt? A dorky guy films himself dancing with people at landmarks all of the world. The web's answer to "It's a small world." And yet, with some embarrassment, I admit to being moved. Kumbaya, people. (Note to Orlando: Matt was not eaten by cannibals.)