StumbleUpon Launches Video Referral Site, StumbleVideo
Natali Del Conte
31 comments »
StumbleUpon’s social browsing application has been such a big hit that the company is launching a separate site for video referral called StumbleVideo.
StumbleUpon is a browser toolbar that recommends Web sites based on viewing patterns of other people with similar user profiles. StumbleVideo will do the same type of recommending for video, only it is not a browser extension. It is a Web site that works within the browser.
“We’ve seen a lot of growth in stumbling videos and now we’re able to bring you highly relevant, high quality content, based on your preferences,” said David Feller, vice president of marketing at StumbleUpon. “It’s very difficult to find something that is relevant to you just on searching ‘humor videos,’ or ‘cat videos.’ With StumbleVideo, you never leave the page. The content is brought directly to you. It’s a lot like channel searching but everything is customized based on your interests and preferences.”
To begin with, StumbleVideo will serve videos from the top three video sites: YouTube, Google Video, and Myspace. Feller said that any site with embeddable video can and will be served in the future but they chose these three in the interest of a timely launch.
Before StumbleVideo learns a users’ preferences, it starts them out with 20 video categories. Within the category, it starts playing videos, which users then give either a thumbs up or a thumbs down. The program will then play the subsequent videos accordingly. Users can also click on a triangle in the bottom right portion of the screen to open a side screen showing which users watched and liked the same video.
One issue I have with this is the privacy issue. What if I don’t want people to know what I watch online? VodPod has a setting where you can set certain video views to private.
“That is not the way that StumbleUpon works right now,” Feller said. “Everything is public. We might consider changing that in the future but right now it is a completely open social network.”
StumbleUpon has 1.65 million registered users in 139 countries, who “stumble” 4 million sites per day. The company was rumored to be for sale for $50 million last month but executives did not comment on that in our call on Wednesday.
I have tried the functions and tools but not really impressed by it. Wonder why they can become a hit.
Hmm..
This sounds great in principle; YouTube’s idea of what’s hot, and the limited performance of tagging when it comes to rich media (as opposed to fully indexed textual content) make this more than a gimick - if the technology works, this thing will be great.
Natalia,
This looks like a great idea. But what makes it different from all the other social bookmarking sites? Also, what is so great about social bookmarking nowadays? If I remember correctly, Backflip used to do the same back in the days.
- Jose
Natali,
Some comments - I also posted this at 12:01 like was requested but in the release they name the site “Stumble Video” not “StumbleVideo” as you have listed. I could be wrong on this though but I know in my former employ, the press release was considered godly. MySpace has a cap S.
More importantly, and I hope this will help as you grow on TC, you mention a call you had with the founders. This is something I will do on Thursday and since you are the biggest, you get first dibs. That’s great, but why not share more info from your call. It seems most of your post is a rehash of the press release with a quick snippet about the call. I have seen this several times in your posts.
So I would ask that when you get these inside scoop calls before anyone else due to the current level of TC, that you include more from the calls. Otherwise, why even mention them? Give us all the juicy bits from the bottom of the pan, don’t leave some for later
Hope that helps!
I love stumble upon…i place their stumble tool in every article….and also what allen said!
Mike: I got a video interview with the StumbleUpon guys and they give me a demo of the new Video Stumble service. It’s very cool. The videos are linked to here: http://scobleizer.com/2006/12/.....rvice-fun/
I mention Techcrunch in the interview.
Does anyone keep track of the number of video sites launched since YouTube? Some of them might go down the Tube.
I wish them all well. Just voicing the concerns.
A while back I was discussing a very similar concept with a friend and one thing that we were not clear about is how legal is it to pull content from other sites and make a profit off of it? Not sure how SU is going about it but that’s where we were stuck looking for answers. Any thoughts?
Hmm… Wheres DIGG Video? Lets do it.
Wheres DIGG Video?
It’s in the works…ssshhh secret
Startups: the profit is there. Watch the videos I did with the team.
StumbleUpon’s audience is a lot more interesting than Digg’s is. Advertisers will pay for that.
Yep..just watched it. Thanks for getting the interview, Robert.
Hi guys, I ’stumbled’ upon a website called myholycrib.com where you can grab all the videos you found and put it on a netvibes like drag and drop desktop. It works with all video networks (I tried youtube, myspace, dailymotion, metacafe and so on) and the best part of it is that you have a bunch of privacy settings that allow you to restrict access to your desktop (they call it crib). I found it much easier to use and it’s already online. The video is here: How It Works
I don’t how legal that is for example I found this one, a guy who has a bunch of Nirvana videos in his crib: Nirvana… but I’m impressed, kind of addictive.
This is a red hot market…so cant blame them at all……
“I have tried the functions and tools but not really impressed by it. Wonder why they can become a hit.” -Rulepark
Hmmm…..is right….
Cant afford that in this very competitive market…..
What an amazing concept…we have something similar in the works. Good job SU
What an amazing concept…we have something similar in the works. Good job SU
Where are free Nadine Jensen videos?
The option of stumbling sites is very useful, i am regular user of Stumble upon, i have a doubt about it though. How can grow my network with friends in stumbleupon. If any one knows anything about it you can blog at my LAB, you can also use it for TECH Support:
http://dexter-laboratory.blogspot.com/
That’s cool. I like Stumbleupon. And in fact Sumbleupon brings me many traffic. If you’re a webmaster, you’d better take a try. With the new video feature, I’m sure more and more will like SU.
-Mike
Tech Tutorials: http://www.hotcoding.com
Applications that are tied to YouTube, MySpace, or Google have a very good chance for success. A rumored $50M sale for the company, not a bad start and perhaps just the beginning.
http://davidchao.typepad.com
I have been stumbling for a couple of years.
WARNING! stumble upon is highly addictive!
Stumble upon is different from other social bookmarking sites in its serendipitous nature.Stumble upon also has a gambling type of feel to it,you keep hitting the stumble button and you eventually hit a jack pot.
If you already use stumble upon you can already stumble through just videos. the stumble video site is nice because it doesnt take you to a neww web site every time you stumble also the background fades to black, wich is very easy to watch
I use stumpling alot as well and it’s a great tool, i agree a little adictive at times!