eBay acquires StumbleUpon

exploring opportunities in new technologies and businesses

[herb]

"We'll be exploring the possibilities for synergies between StumbleUpon,eBay marketplaces, Skype, and PayPal"

Bill Cobb President, eBay North America [www2.ebay.com]

[Quadrille]

I thought people had got bored with stumbleupon?

Maybe not! :)

[martinibuster]

>>>We'll be exploring the possibilities for synergies between StumbleUpon,eBay marketplaces, Skype, and PayPal"

Shouldn't they have done that before buying Stumbleupon?

[koan]

For webmasters, though, traffic from StumbleUpon seems pretty worthless. It's a hit and run kind and they don't click on ads.

[martinibuster]

I was on eBay a few hours ago and they had links to stumbleupon. So anything to raise awareness and get more people over there is good for SU and webmasters.

[amznVibe]

exploring == exploiting == ads, ads, ads, more ads, and ads

I guess this really is web 2.0 where the big get bigger.

Wasn't Google supposed to take ebay down a peg with "base"
and give us a serious alternative to paypal with "checkout"?

[rogerd]

I wonder how they'll change the way SU works... it seems that you can use many of the features via the toolbar (stumble for new sites, vote for a site, etc.) without interacting with the Stumbleupon site. I'd guess their pageviews per user are a lot lower than, say , Digg.

[tamar]

I wonder how they'll change the way SU works... it seems that you can use many of the features via the toolbar (stumble for new sites, vote for a site, etc.) without interacting with the Stumbleupon site. I'd guess their pageviews per user are a lot lower than, say , Digg.

The page views are a lot lower, yes. I also stumble often and rarely interact with the StumbleUpon site. The only time I really check it is to view my last discoveries or stumbles, since it saves it in my user history.

[trillianjedi]

I don't think it has anything to do with ads. This deal is about two things - (1) community and (2) a toolbar.

It wouldn't surprise me in the least to see eBay getting into search some point in 2008.

TJ

[howiejs]

This makes a ton of sense for ebay. I also agree with the above point that they will get involved with search

(it may not work out . . . like amazon / a9 . . .)
but they will try

[sun818]

eBay has already been involved with product search via their eBay Express search engine called Magellan. I think the recommendation engine that StumbleUpon uses can be added to the eBay toolbar, or perhaps utilize the technology in the eBay site itself?

[rarethings55]

I figured it out. Goog is jumping. Msft is climbing. hell, even yhoo is inching its way up. but ebay? They've been running in circles.

This buy is like the "me too" kid running around the playground. The 2.0 playground, that is.