What are all these funny-sounding things? Thing 12

I'm just a wee bit proud that I discovered some of these things before I got to this Thing. I've been putting a lot of time into my Travels with Children blog lately (sorry to keep mentioning it, but it's something that's near and dear to my heart) and as a result, have been looking at ways of increasing its readership (somewhat successfully, I'm happy to say). So, in reading and learning more about the wide world of blogging, I came across Stumbleupon, Reddit, and Digg.

I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the Reddit and Digg type sites. I think I have the same reaction as I do when the news magazines publish what their top 5 online stories of the past week were. I really don't care what the rest of the world is interested in.

Stumbleupon, however, is another matter. I really like this one. Stumbleupon allows you to give a "thumbs-up" or "thumbs-down" for any site you visit; if you're inclined, you can write a more in-depth review of the site. When you register for Stumbleupon, you tell it what categories you're interested in. Movies? Agriculture? Gardening? Computers? Travel? Children? and so on. Then, when you've got a few seconds, you can click on the Stumbleupon button and get a "random" site to pop up, random in the sense that it's based on the categories you've chosen, what you've thumbs-upped or -downed previously, and how many other people have thumbs-upped the site. I use Stumbleupon when I have a few extra seconds--during a commercial break on TV, while I'm waiting for something else to load, etc. I've come across some interesting sites, ranging from blogs to author sites to a geography quiz that my son loves. You can also set up a network like in Technorati or other similar sites and share your liked and disliked sites with others. I'm not so much a part of the social side of things, but I do like Stumbleupon for finding new and interesting sites.