StumbleUpon may be for Sale????

First I'd like to apologize for my lack of posting lately, I've been really sick with that awful cold I'm sure all of you have experienced!



Today on my "Tech Crunch" feed I noticed something disturbing, for a small price of $50 million, my baby, my favorite FireFox extension/ time waster/ learning tool may be up bought. This does appear to be a rumour at this point, but I'm scared, I love stumbleupon! They can't change anything. You may remember my previous post about it, and my link is to your left if you want to check out my pages. If you don't have it, again I beg you, get it and use it its great.



According to the site

"Two sources have confirmed that the rapidly growing StumbleUpon recently approached at least one large Internet company to be acquired. The asking price was $50 million."



The CEO Garret Camp was asked about it and he refused, stating "we do not comment on rumours"

/> One potential buyer did say they met with Stumbleupon to talk about "possible business development deals", not an actual purchase.



It does seem, and I'm guilty of this myself, that Stumbleupon is loosing its original purchase and is now being used allot by people trying to start new websites. I do get allot of my traffic from the company, seeing how I did stumble my blog a few times for things like XP tips, but not every article that's for sure. According to the CEO Garret " the company has 1.5 million registered users and an average of 3.5 million page views per day" They can expect to be cash flow positive withing the next few months also.

I have to admit lately I've been seeing allot more retail sites via my stumbles, and I usually give them the thumbs down unless its a really great product, or there is something special I like about it. That's the point of the site is to explore pages with a social network that consists of contacts and pages connected by similar interests. I wouldn't like to see the quality of my stumbles start to decline into an advertising machine...but I do like to read cool blogs and the opinions of others which may be why I justify my site adding.



I guess its in the hands of the users, us. If we continue to like or dislike our sites, the money grabbers will be weeded out by our selections, and the tool will continue to produce quality stumbles. Its in our hands!!



Do I agree with trying to make a quick buck through it? NO, but in a world where businesses may be "made or broke" by Google's page rank, its pretty tempting to do whatever is possible to drive traffic to a site. In fact, driving traffic has become a business itself and so on.



Is this the end of social networking powered sites? Has the ugly corporate hand stepped in again and tainted another great idea? Or can the "Social" aspect of these tools still police itself..I think its up to the people..

/> So coming back to the original topic, I hope we can keep this cool gadget in our hands, don't sell!! Keep the money grabbing honest and keep off my pages!



Ahem,,, if you liked the article, feel free to click on an adsense add on your way out by goooooogle hehehehe



Jill :)







Technorati Tags: Stumbleupon for sale, web 2.0, technology, tech news

powered by performancing firefox

How to Ditch your Cell Phone Plan

I was on Wired News today, and found a pretty good article that gives some good tips on how to get out of your cell phone contract. Some of the reasons are actually the cause of someone wanting out, others are the result of an impulse buy to get the newest phone I imagine as cheap as possible. We all have made cell phone blunders, and got stuck with bills, a bad company or bad bad service. Most of us are locked in to these giant cooperation's, having no choice to go along with it, until your plan runs out and then suddenly you are their best friend again! I say skip the contract if you can, and read the small print when signing all the time, shop around, don't impulse buy! This will save you the headaches of a bad decision for up to 3 years or even more. This is what they recommended : You can find link to the actual content here :http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/howtodigital.html

Here's a brief Rundown

»Be a squeaky wheel. Say you want out because the service isn't up to par. (And really, is it?) Then back that up by filing official complaints online with the Federal Trade Commission and the Better Business Bureau.

(In Canadathis would be the BBB or numerous requests to speak to higher ups at the "Business office in my experience)

»Get off the grid. Study your provider's coverage map and find a town (maybe in Alaska?) with absolutely no service. Then tell the company you're moving there. They're not legally required to cut you loose, but frustrated consumers have reported success.

*This should work for other countries too... but don't actually move there! And if you are in an area where service is crappy, let them know!

»Join the Army. Some people have finagled their way out of a contract by claiming they just got orders to ship off to Iraq. Be warned: You may be asked for documentation.

*I'm not sure I agree with this one these days...lolont>

»Try a market-based fix. StarStart uphref="http://celltradeusa.com/" target="new">Celltradeusa.com matches unhappy mobile customers with people who'd like to sign up - at a discount, of course. You'll pay a $20 fee to sell your contract on the block.

»Shrink your plan. As a last resort, cut back to the bare minimum the provider allows and drop any frills, like picture-messaging. Depending on the number of months you have left, this could be cheaper than paying the typically prorated termination fee, which can often run up to $200.

Most of these would work, not sure about the second to last, I recommend being as nice and polite as possible, stating your reasons up front and then going as high up as you can, from my experience with working with Telcos and providers, the sqeeky wheel does get the grease, and a pleasant demeanour will get you way further than angry complaints like everyone else..try that first.

Happy cancelling!