StumbleUpon, a content discovery engine from the early days of the internet that attracted 40 million users over its 16-year run, shut down Sunday. But, its successor will launch before long.
Before sites like Facebook, Tumblr and Reddit made it easy for people to curate their own bubbles of personally relevant content, sites like StumbleUpon helped people find popular web pages and receive recommendations for similar web pages.
Now, after 60 billion "Stumble" clicks and years of financial turmoil, including eBay buying and then selling StumbleUpon back to its original owners, the site has finally shuttered.
Today is the last day to hit that Stumble button. Thank you to our dear Stumblers for joining us in internet history. We hope you find your next home with us at Mix. #MovetoMix @getmixappJune 30, 2018
Garrett Camp, who also co-founded Uber, announced the decision last week in a Medium post. In it, he said that the remaining Stumble team would move on to Mix.com, a new content discovery platform.
“Mix.com combines social and semantic personalization into one streamlined experience,” Camp says. “It also makes it easier for people to organize content into meaningful collections. This will help you find obscure but interesting content that has been recommended by people you know and trust.”
If you’re one of those 40 million StumbleUpon users who stuck with the site this long, don’t worry about losing your personalized content. Camp also assured that these users will be able to import favorites and tags to Mix “over the next couple of months”.
How many clicks will Mix get?
Mix will likely launch fully within that one- to two-month time frame, so people looking for a way to look for cool websites should keep an eye out for that.
Camp says Mix will work on any smartphone and browser. Hopefully, the Mix app will have better ratings than the StumbleUpon iOS app.
The main question, of course, is whether Mix will make an impression amidst so many other popular social networks. Of course, many former StumbleUpon fans may try out the new platform out of a sense of nostalgia.
This news is also an excellent reminder to check out your old favorite websites from the '90s and early '00s and see if they're still kicking. Is Geocities still around?
- Find the best smart speaker for your home
