Anyone remember eTour? The site whose tagline was "Surf the Web Without Searching" didn't survive 2001's dotcom crash. StumbleUpon is Web 2.0's eTour and it's an absolutely fantastic way to wander through websites that potentially interest you. There's no typing, there's no "links" pages to seek out. There's not much effort on a user's behalf at all.

• To use StumbleUpon, you must download an add-on to your toolbar that lets you give sites a thumbs-up, thumbs-down and click "Stumble!"
• Submit your site to StumbleUpon by clicking the thumbs-up button when you're viewing your homepage. If you are the first person to bookmark your site, you'll be prompted to give it a title, briefly review it and fill out some other information about its content.
• If you've said your site is about technology, users who have specified technology as one of their interests will potentially be directed to your site when they click "Stumble!" You may only pick one topic.
• The tags you give your site will also influence traffic. Unlike topics, you may include multiple tags.
• There is also an automated system whereby StumbleUpon reads a page's text and decided what it's probably about.
• The system sometimes gets it wrong (pages containing mainly graphics are obviously hard for the categorizer). Users, however, can report mistakes if they feel a site has been categorized inaccurately.
• Getting noticed on StumbleUpon depends on whether users identify your page as one they enjoy by using the thumbs-up button. The more people who identify your page as thumbs-up-able, the more traffic StumbleUpon will send you.
• Also, if a user comes across your site and really doesn't like it, they can click a little thumbs-down button on their tool bar before leaving, demoting your site's status on the StumbleUpon network.
• Members can join StumbleUpon Groups and contact others on the site, although these social features aren't nearly as interesting as StumbleUpon's addictive ability to store and present websites that people like.
• Additionally, although it is a free service, members can upgrade their accounts to the status of "sponsor" by paying twenty U.S. dollars per year. Sponsors have access to extra features, such as the ability create new groups and to keep messages in their inboxes for longer.
• One could argue that there's a psychological advantage to having your site discovered by a Stumbler. After all, they've told a program what they like, and the program has presented them with your site. Hence, people are somewhat programmed to believe that they're going to like what they see.
• StumbleUpon is linkbait's tool of choice. When stumbling, you'll often find yourself arriving at pages well within a site. Rarely are you directed to a homepage.