StumbleUpon, the popular Web-surfing service, just ditched its software toolbar in favor of a persistent frame that appears at the top of pages you're Stumbling. The theory behind the switch, which happened Tuesday night, was to get more people Stumbling. My experience was the opposite of inclusive: The transition added a bunch of new steps to the process, making for a complicated and obnoxious endeavor.
To access the new non-toolbar Stumble experience, you must first go to the StumbleUpon website. This is annoying for those accustomed to the toolbar, which allowed Stumbling from any place on the Web. When I signed into my account, I was shown the same old homepage I've seen before, replete with ads hawking the software toolbar, with no mention of the update. I could not access the new feature when logged in; I had to sign out first and surf anonymously.
Websites are now cleanly separated by category, rather than the mishmash of the former site. I clicked on Technology and informed the algorithm that, yes, I like tech. The site then invited me to hop tech sites. Most of them were worthless, but without the Thumbs Down button embedded in the original toolbar, I couldn't express my preference. Even when I clicked 1 star, StumbleUpon wanted to know if I really did like the site -- uh, no, I don't. My only forward-moving option was clicking on the Stumble button.
When I found a site I finally liked, I noticed that the new browser toolbar prevents me from seeing the original URL. Instead, I'm given a StumbleUpon proxy address. Even when I click on the site's homepage button, the proxy does not go away. Now it will require extra sleuthing to share my findings with my friends who aren't a part of the service.
I clicked the Thumbs Up button and was told that if I liked the site, I should give it a Thumbs Up. I just did. Turns out you have to give the site a star rating. Then StumbleUpon drags you to yet another site, further away from the one you enjoyed, to say again, yes, I like this material. It's a deluge of unnecessary steps that totally detracts from the easy hop, skip and leap experience StumbleUpon previously had. It's not even fun.
The site update comes after six years of planning, according to StumbleUpon founder Garrett Camp. As it stands right now, they should have waited for lucky number seven.
