StumbleUpon Completely Revamped Its Website

StumbleUpon completely revamped its website Monday adding a new logo, design and a channel feature that gives brands a non-intrusive role in the service.

“Really this is the biggest refresh in terms of look and feel that we’ve ever had on the web,” StumbleUpon CEO Garrett Camp said.

While the social web discovery site sported a green and blue logo with its initials, SU, winding through it Sunday, it switched to an orange logo that includes more abstract initials Monday. The website’s once Facebook-like design has been reworked to be visually driven, and a new StumbleUpon Bar integrates the Explore box that the company launched in August (the Social Bar, which launched on the iPad app in July, is still nowhere to be found).

Beyond cosmetics, the biggest debut in the re-design is the integration of “Channels.” The feature is a way for brands, publications and celebrities to participate on the platform without intruding into the StumbleUpon experience. Such entities who had been looking to promote themselves on the platform, even though it bans business accounts in its terms of service, were not welcomed with open arms by users when they set up regular StumbleUpon accounts.

In addition to giving brands and publications a home on StumbleUpon, Channels fit in nicely with the platform’s recent trend toward specificity. The Explore Box, which allows users to Stumble a specific topic rather than a broad category, took the number of StumbleUpon interest verticals from about 500 to more than 500,000. With Channels, users can drill down further to specific publications, celebrities and brands.

Source [Mashable]