In the world before social media, Pinterest, and Instagram, there weren’t that many ways to discover new content on the Internet outside of Google.
Sure, you could always head over to Reddit or, for those who remember, Digg, but they were more akin to rambling forums than the focused, curated content we are used to in our Instagram feeds today.
Personally, Pinterest is one of my favourite ways to discover amazing photography, but there are also other options like the aforementioned Instagram as well as Reddit and even Flipboard.
Before all of these, however, StumbleUpon was a go-to source for what’s weird, quirky, and noteworthy on the web. It was also a great source for finding interesting photos that provided inspiration…
In a time before ubiquitous social platforms, StumbleUpon’s premise was simple but effective.
Using user submitted content, that was subsequently tagged, categorized, and voted upon by other StumbleUpon community members, the service brought people to web content they may not have otherwise found.
Well, like all good things, StumbleUpon must now come to an end but promises to live on in a new service called Mix.
Mix promises to combine more elements of social media and “new” web technology than the old StumbleUpon platform had. Though StumbleUpon will be integrated into the service, it will effectively disappear upon that happening.
Mix is also more focused on the smartphone and mobile experience with an app that StumbleUpon didn’t launch until much later in its life.
Once boasting some 40 million users, StumbleUpon as a service will cease on June 30, transferring its archive to the Mix platform. While it’s sad to see StumbleUpon go, it is just a reminder of how ephemeral some of these services can be on the Internet.
What was once a powerhouse of web content distribution is now being subsumed into a new brand focused on social media. Just goes to show you that nothing is forever even if it is on the Internet.
