Yeah, I never thought I’d compare the two, to be honest. Google has established itself firmly as a standard search engine for some very good reasons. That’s why I was kind of surprised that when I went to look for some royalty-free stock photography today, I started to throw it in my Google toolbar, but then opted for jumping on to StumbleUpon. Why? Google’s system is much more gameable right now, as in, people who know SEO will probably get their site higher than many people who might actually have a really good resource but no SEO experience. With SU, however, I’ll find the sites that people who really know photography are going to for royalty-free photos. They’re voted on by people and not an algorithm.
Now, I’m not arguing that StumbleUpon is invincible to people gaming their system in the least. But I do think that right now, I have to look through less data for certain topics than I would through Google. I used to scoff at a quote I had read regarding StumbleUpon’s future as the web’s prime landing page and while I don’t know that that’s the truth, I’m definitely not laughing at it anymore.
