You can still find cool, weird stuff
StumbleUpon was one of the best ways to explore the web—just enter your interests, click a button, and watch as an interesting website was dropped onto your monitor.
Sadly, the service shut down operations in 2018 after 16 years. The good news is that there are still StumbleUpon alternatives that are worth checking out.
Table of Contents
1. Mix
Mix is the “true” successor to StumbleUpon. In fact, in a letter to fans, the co-founder of StumbleUpon suggested Mix as the next step for the platform. You sign into Mix using your Google account where you are presented with five links: For you, Following, Popular, My Bookmarks, and Inbox.
You can enter your interests just like you would on StumbleUpon, choosing from a huge number of categories and subcategories. For example, you can choose “Food” as an interest, or you can drill down and select “Cheese” and “Healthy Eating.” The customization is great, even though it doesn’t feel quite like StumbleUpon.
You can also choose to follow people that have similar interests to yourself, save pages you find interesting, and more. While a button similar to the original “Stumble” feature would be a welcome addition, Mix is close enough to StumbleUpon to capture the essence of the site.
2. Discuvver
Discuvver is a site that captures the feeling of StumbleUpon. While it doesn’t allow you to list interests, it fulfills its promise of discovering interesting, unique sites “one click at a time.” From the main website, just click on the button that says “Take me to a useful website!”
The first click took us to Rezhound, a site for getting real-time availability alerts for tables at restaurants. The second click took us to Ninite, the single best program management tool on the web. The third took us to Review Skeptic, a website that uses an AI to determine whether a hotel review is real or not.
That’s all there is to Discuvver—click the button and find a website you might never have known about otherwise. Despite the simplicity, there’s a fun anticipation to be found in every click of the button.
3. Refind
Refind isn’t a site for entertainment, but rather for learning. It focuses on 1% improvement, day after day–which it tells readers equates to a 37x improvement over the course of a year. Refind asks users to give it 10 minutes each day for the next 14 days as a trial.
You sign up using Google, Facebook, or Twitter, and then pick five topics that interest you out of a huge range of potential subjects. Each day, Refind directs you to 10 links relating to these topics.
It’s not quite the same as stumbling onto topics by accident, but Refind can provide you with interesting links each and every day.
4. Pinterest
Everyone knows what Pinterest is, and though it may not seem like a StumbleUpon alternative, it absolutely is—and one of the better options, too. Pinterest is a great way to just browse the huge amount of content that’s on the web.
Just do a quick search for a topic you’re interested in and see what comes up. Usually, you’ll find everything from articles on the subject to numerous resources, fan pages, and more. Pinterest also makes it easy to tag articles and share them with friends. Contrary to popular belief, it’s more than just recipes in mason jars.
Just sign into Pinterest with your Facebook or Google account and get started. After a time, Pinterest will begin to suggest pages based on your search history. It will even suggest profiles for you to follow that are related to your interests. While Pinterest is largely visual, those images all link somewhere and are a great way to discover fascinating websites you might otherwise miss.
5. Reddit
Reddit may be the most popular website on the entire Internet. It’s a great place to find interesting, bizarre, and sometimes flat-out useless content. In many ways, Reddit is the ultimate StumbleUpon alternative. Rather than entering interests, you follow specific subreddits.
With a bit of effort, you can completely customize your Reddit homepage to only show content you want. Extra add-ons, like the Reddit Enhancement Suite, further expand the similarities. Reddit is a great way to find communities of people interested in the same things you are.
Something to note is that the smaller the community, the more likely it is to have valuable content. Larger communities tend to have so many submissions that interesting content can be missed, but the beauty of Reddit is that even the most niche interests have communities within the site.
6. Digg
Anyone older than 30 might be shocked to even hear Digg mentioned as a StumbleUpon alternative. Once upon a time, Digg was the powerhouse of the Internet. It was larger than Facebook, Reddit, and almost any other website, but eventually, it faded in popularity.
Now, Digg is an excellent resource for finding articles on numerous subjects, but especially tech-related topics. You can check Digg for information on tech, politics, bitcoin, science, design, photography, and more. The homepage is a curated list of some of the most interesting pieces on the site.
The format closely resembles that of Reddit, especially with the upvote format. The best topics will naturally find their way to the top, but you can scour the site for the less-popular articles and the content that doesn’t reach the front page.
If you click the “Explore” button in the top-right corner, Digg shows you a host of topics you can browse. This is one of the best ways to find out exactly what’s on the site, and a great way to discover fascinating stories that might otherwise fall by the wayside.
The Internet is a vast, fascinating place, and it can be tough to explore without the right tools. Visit these six sites and discover brand-new websites and resources you might never find otherwise.
