Amidst rumors that eBay has been trying to offload StumbleUpon lass than 18 months after purchasing it, the company is now enabling web surfers to access their user-recommended content without stumbling through the registration process. Starting today, StumbleUpon users access its content without registering or installing its toolbar, a move that will likely boost its viewership and advertising revenue.
The recommendation engine's growth has been hindered by its dependence on the clunky toolbar download. The new web-based browser toolbar replicates the services' functionality while eliminating the drop off of potential users deterred by dwnloading a plug-in. The company hopes that new viewers who come across StumbleUpon content elsewhere will sign on to the service and increase its viewership numbers and profitability.
The company is also launching a partner program today. Partner sites like National Geographic, Rolling Stone, and The Huffington Post can integrate a StumbleUpon toolbar into their site that "stumbles" content from within the site. The new program will increase page views on partner sites by introducing users to new content, while helping StumbleUpon reach a broader audience — and increase the eyeballs looking at their popular ad content.
StumbleUpon has incredibly high advertising satisfaction rates. For every 20 or 30 Web pages users see when they click the "stumble" button on the company's toolbar, they are served one paid result. Approximately 75 percent of its paid results have a positive rating, compared to an overall favorability rating of 85 percent for its non-paid content.
The company will also be rolling out ad enhancements over the next year that include recommendations on specific categories where an advertiser's content may do well and improved analytics to gauge effectiveness of advertising content.
The company will also hire in business development and direct ad sales. Their self-serve ad system was quietly launched a year ago and the company says that it has had inventory growth of 250 percent this year, with a total of 350 million pages delivered in August.
UPDATE: As of Thursday morning, the new design of the site is still in testing mode to a select group of viewers (and unavailable to most). But there is still a way to see what it will look like.
