StumbleUpon Launches Stumble Video
Posted on December 14, 2006
StumbleUpon, a popular social bookmarking website that lets people share their favorite websites with others and find new websites that match their interests, has added a social video surfing website called Stumble Video. Marketing Pilgrim explains more about Stumble Video in a post that includes comments from StumbleUpon's VP of Marketing, David Feller.
With the launch of StumbleVideo, the company is betting that people will enjoy discovering new videos in the very same way, and spend even more time "channel surfing." "People demand instant access to online video content that's personally gratifying, and they don't want to spend all day looking for it. That's where StumbleUpon fits in," says Feller. "StumbleVideo allows people to discover great videos they would likely never find using traditional keyword searches. The experience is like channel surfing through video content that is laser-targeted to your tastes."New ways to browse and find videos are going to be popular and Stumble Video includes channels that are sure to appeal to video seekers like bizarre, cats and music. However, Mashable points out that the video service may be a little too solitary for some.Using the service is easy, in fact, new users don't even need to register or install anything. Simply point your favorite browser to www.stumblevideo.com and use the integrated flash video player to start the surfing experience. You can immediately start rating the videos shown and let StumbleVideo learn from your preferences and find tune what gets shown to you next. Feller tells us, once a user has viewed "75-100" videos, it's a pretty safe bet they'll be interested in joining the community, so at that point StumbleVideo will prompt you to register and save your preferences.
It could certainly turn out to be addictive and rack up pageviews, but somehow I feel it's a bit too solitary: the thing that makes YouTube videos compelling for me is reading the comments, not viewing the clips themselves. That said, I know some Stumblers who are going to love this new release.There are also no descriptions of the videos you are watching other than a short title. Maybe they are planning to add ways for people to place comments and their little avatars in a future update.