StumbleUpon: The TikTok Before TikTok

The internet changed our lives. In less than a century, the internet has transformed some of our everyday habits: the way we interact with businesses, the way we keep up to date with our friends and family, and even the place we go to when we need a new recommendation. Over the last decade, the internet has evolved into a discovery-based media platform. The days of searching AOL, Google, Yahoo, or even Bing to find a hyperlocal niche website curated to your interests are behind us. Social media platforms like TikTok have taken out the monotonous work of scrolling through pages of a Google search; instead, the user is shown a piece of content tailored to their interests. This phenomenon, often referred to as discovery-based media, has its roots in an earlier, less remembered platform: StumbleUpon.

What was StumbleUpon?

StumbleUpon launched in 2001 as a browser extension under founders Garrett Camp and Geoff Smith. The idea was simple: a user would input their interests, click the "Stumble" button, and then be brought to a random website on the internet that matched the user's interests. You might be thinking, "This sounds so similar to Google's 'I'm Feeling Lucky' feature," and you wouldn't be too far off. The differentiator was that StumbleUpon was a random search engine. Users had the ability to rate the websites StumbleUpon distributed with a simple thumbs-up or thumbs-down, helping to refine their future discoveries. The platform's algorithm learned from these interactions and would continue to deliver increasingly personalized content to each user.

In 2007, StumbleUpon was acquired by eBay for $75 million. However, despite its early success, the platform struggled to maintain its user base amid the growing industry of social media applications like Instagram, Vine, and Twitter. In 2015, StumbleUpon was relaunched under its original founders' new company, Mix, but by 2018, the platform was officially shut down.

A screenshot of a Safari Window with the StumbleUpon extension installed

The Switch to Discovery-Based Media

StumbleUpon's underlying algorithm of learning how to personalize content based on user interactions is what we now define as discovery-based media. Unlike a traditional search engine where users search with the intention of finding what they want, discovery-based media platforms flip the script and provide an endless stream of content that the user didn't know they wanted until they viewed it.

2016 was a pivotal year in social media: in March, Instagram introduced their new "Algorithmic-Based Feed" over the classic "Chronological Feed"; in September, ByteDance, a Chinese company, launched TikTok. The modern age of discovery-based media platforms had its foundation built: eight years later, and the success of Instagram and TikTok are testaments to the power of personalized media discovery.

While TikTok and Instagram have dominated the social media scene for the better part of the past five years, it's essential to acknowledge the seeds planted by StumbleUpon. StumbleUpon users were among the first beta testers of a new search algorithm that allowed them to explore the internet in an unconventional way. StumbleUpon may no longer be with us, but its legacy lives on. It was the TikTok before TikTok, a pioneer in the realm of personalized content discovery.