04-19-2007, 07:37 AM
TechCrunch breaking the story:
full article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/18/stu...-acquired/
GigaOm on eBay's reasons for wanting StumbleUpon:
full article: http://gigaom.com/2007/04/18/ebay-likely...umbleupon/
In retaliation for losing the bidding, Google announced plans to launch a StumbleUpon competitor:
full article: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/s...query.html
Quote:High-flying startup StumbleUpon has been rumored to be in acquisition discussions since at least last November. Recently weâve heard that talks have heated up again, with Google, AOL and eBay as potential suitors. A source with knowledge of the deal now says the company has signed a term sheet with eBay to be acquired. The price is somewhere between $40 - $75 million. (update: GigaOm is now reporting the price at a $40 - $45 million).
StumbleUpon lets users rate websites via a browser toolbar. At any time a user can click âStumble!â and will be taken to a website highly rated by other StumbleUpon users who tend to vote in a similar way as the person âstumbling.â More often than not, itâs something almost serendipitously interesting to the reader. The company expanded into video referrals in late 2006...
full article: http://www.techcrunch.com/2007/04/18/stu...-acquired/
GigaOm on eBay's reasons for wanting StumbleUpon:
Quote:Look at this from the toolbar-and-Skype lens. StumbleUpon makes a toolbar that provides collaborative serendipity to find web sites. The toolbar, if you ask StumbleUpon users provides more useful and productive results, than say Google.
By marrying the toolbar to Skype client, eBay can do an end run around Googleâs dominance of the search business. A simple search box inside Skype client is all it would take. It is not that far fetched: Skype has been slowly integrating various different services (including PayPal) into its client, and slowly becoming eBayâs desktop backdoor....
full article: http://gigaom.com/2007/04/18/ebay-likely...umbleupon/
In retaliation for losing the bidding, Google announced plans to launch a StumbleUpon competitor:
Quote: You already know that search is at the core of everything we do: we want to deliver useful and relevant information every time you do a search. But what about when you don't have a query in mind, or if you just don't feel like typing in a query? Today we're releasing two features that reduce the need for you to type in specific queries to get the information you want. Both of these are available to Search History users.
The first is a recommendations button on the Google Toolbar that looks like a pair of dice. Click on the dice, and we'll take you to a site that may be interesting to you based on your past searches. If you want another, just click the dice again and we'll show you a new one. We'll give you up to 50 new sites per day that might be of interest. Just add the button to your Toolbar. (In order to use this feature, you need the latest version of the Toolbar.)...
full article: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/s...query.html