Get Better Search Results with StumbleUpon

Collaborative web search tool StumbleUpon has always helped you avoid unnecessary trips to Google, but now the free browser plug-in can also improve your search results there—along with Wikipedia, Flickr, YouTube, and other sites as well. Starting today, StumbleUpon users should notice star ratings and speech balloons next to their results, indicating the number of thumbs up and overall popularity of the site, as well as the names of StumbleUpon friends who have voted the site up. Links to discussion pages are also provided on the search and results pages.

The new search features come as part of an upgrade package to the StumbleUpon browser add-on that includes a familiar feature to find friends through your e-mail account, Facebook login, and Outlook contacts. Those who want to keep their search results clean can easily disable the new features in the StumbleUpon preferences. For tips on better using StumbleUpon, check out Wendy’s guide to getting the most out of your stumbles.