StumbleUpon... (I like it!)

As my wipers smeared greasy raindrops back and forth on my windshield, a friend in the passenger seat recommended that I use Coca-Cola to clean off the glass.

"Something about the acid and carbonation," she said. "Supposedly it can dissolve nails in a couple of days." Then she looked at me suspiciously. "You haven't been using your Stumble much, have you? The Coca-Cola remedy comes up a lot."

Busted.

I tried to explain that I had been using the StumbleUpon application to rate websites I've visited in the past week or so (you can download the app to your web browser toolbar here). But now I realize that I had been missing the whole point.

While search engines are designed to take you exactly where you want to go, StumbleUpon is designed to take you to a random webpage that has been rated highly by others. There's still an algorithm, but it is composed of humans voicing opinions rather than computers crunching numbers. After each visit, you get to say "I like it!" or "I don't like it!" and your vote will be tallied with the rest.

I still haven't found that page on Coca-Cola cleaning remedies, but I've stumbled upon some amazing content. (e.g. from Esplanade)


http://view.break.com/347555 - Watch more free videos

Whenever it stops raining here, I'll probably grab a can of soda from the fridge and start scrubbing. I'm sure I could probably do a search for the page with proper instructions on how to do it, but that would be missing the point once again. I prefer the anecdotal randomness to my Coca-Cola remedy, as opposed to a search-and-destroy mentality. Truth is, I don't really care if my wipers continue to be referred to as "smearers" by my friend and, besides, the blurry streaks tend to create a nice effect under the streetlights.

If it works, it works. In the meantime, I have to admit that I'm quite impressed with the mechanics of stumbling. It gives me hope that we can actually democratize the music and video industries by applying similar human algorithms relying on unbiased ratings. Maybe someday we'll even get around to elections.