29
Jun

SiteShuffle: The Next StumbleUpon?

siteshuffle logo

Now that StumbleUpon has been acquired by eBay for something like $75 million, I was expecting to see quite a few knock-off websites vying to be the next StumbleUpon. But for some reason, I haven’t seen much of anything. (Which is a surprise when you look at the number of Myspace and Youtube clones.)

But I did stumble upon (pun intended) a site called SiteShuffle.

The SiteShuffle homepage states:

SiteShuffle is the NEW Web application that turns your HOMEPAGE into a WEBSITE PLAYER, and gives you the ability to FF or REW through a LINKLIST of your favorite WEBSITES.

PLUS, get automated RECOMMENDATIONS for other sites, based on your similarity to other users in the SiteShuffle system.

Sounds like fun. And quite similar to StumbleUpon, if you think about the recommendation part. It even has a toolbar and a button, just like SU.

The button is just like any other button, like the ones I have in the sidebar on this blog like “Add to Technorati.” SiteShuffle says it is the only “dark and dangerous” button, but I’m not sure where they came up with that. Must be part of their branding…

As for the toolbar, it looks like you could use SiteShuffle without it, whereas StumbleUpon really requires the toolbar for it to be worthwhile. The SS toolbar will help you add URLs to your shuffle list, but mainly I see it as a way for them to keep SiteShuffle fresh in your mind. I guess the fact that you can see your own list or search for something just from the sites in your list is useful (but not totally necessary, especially if you already have 5 toolbars in your browser.)

The site looked promising enough, at least as far as promoting my site to other people, so I went ahead and signed-up.

I started by adding some of my favorite sites to my list. Now when I get to my SS homepage, I can easily FF or REW through my list (using neat buttons) just like they promised. When I get to one I like, I just click its title or the launch button.

(Click the thumbnail to see a larger version of my homepage.)

And that is what SiteShuffle boils down to. It’s not bad, but it’s not that intuitive.

For example, I still don’t know how to get my recommended sites. I keep searching their site and still can’t figure it out. All it says is “add sites to your list and we’ll give you recommendations based on what other people like.” That would be great if it gave me any recommendations!!

Perhaps no one else has listed webmaster sites like Digitalpoint and DoshDosh? Am I the only internet marketer on there?

SiteShuffle has been around well over a year now and I don’t have a clue what their user base is, but the site has a PR6 right now despite an Alexa rank of about 1,225,000. Perhaps if there were more webmasters, the Alexa rank would be better, because webmasters are more likely to have the Alexa toolbar installed. Anyway, back to business…

SiteShuffle does offer an API, which could be a big part of their future success. If people build add-ons or integrate it into their own sites, it will increase SS’s competitive advantage to help ward off future competitors. Kind of like how the Facebook platform is making headlines right now.

Last but not least, the affiliate program. Just what I was hoping for!

Actually, I had no clue how they could work an affiliate program into this type of service, but they did it, and they did it in a very smart way. If someone signs-up through your referral link, your site is automatically added to their SiteShuffle list! Nice and sneaky!

It looks like you don’t even have to be a member of SiteShuffle either. Hell, you could hate SiteShuffle, but display their banner just to market your website!

That’s smart because a) they are making it very simple for you to promote their website, and b) they are providing you an incentive by letting you promote your site at the same time!

Overall I think SiteShuffle is a decent site, although it leans more towards social bookmarking than website sharing (which is what made StumbleUpon so great.) Maybe SiteShuffle is actually a Del.icio.us competitor.

I bet we could call it stum.blicio.us instead!