stumbleupon

Pinterest is now the fastest growing site for referral traffic, according to a new study by content-sharing company Shareaholic. If Google+, YouTube, and LinkedIn's referral traffic were added up, they still wouldn't drive as many users as Pinterest.

The premise behind Pinterest is for users to gather, organize, and share things they find on the Web, such as home decorations, clothing, and food. The end result is curated pinboards that are meant to help friends discover new items or get inspiration. Currently, Pinterest is invite-only.

In the study, Shareaholic aggregated data from more than 200,000 publishers that … Read more

StumbleUpon's new link shortening site called Su.pr made its public (yet private) launch today. Similar to Bit.ly, it shortens URLs and lets users track where they end up, along with stats on who's clicked on them. It also brings along StumbleUpon's software-free toolbar which lets users hop to both recommended and random links.

However, the real appeal of Su.pr is that it gives each shortened URL the potential for greatness. URLs can be seeded not only to Twitter and Facebook, but also into StumbleUpon's content pool where they can be discovered and promoted … Read more

This was originally posted at ZDNet's Between the Lines.

eBay's first-quarter results were better than expected, and the company argued that it is operating with more discipline and smarter.

For the quarter ended March 31 (statement), the company reported net income of $357.1 million, or 28 cents a share, on revenue of $2.02 billion, down $171.6 million from a year ago due to poor performance in its marketplaces unit. On a non-GAAP basis, eBay reported first-quarter earnings of $499.9 million, or 39 cents a share.

Wall Street was expecting earnings of 33 cents a … Read more

Amid stormy economic seas, auction giant eBay has thrown overboard StumbleUpon, the recommendation and "discovery" start-up that it purchased in 2007 for approximately $75 million.

Replacing corny nautical puns with corny alcohol puns, this looks like a symptom of the hangover that followed eBay's acquisition binge during Web 2.0's heyday. Even though many speculated that eBay would use StumbleUpon's technology to power product recommendations, the two companies just didn't find a fit--or a way to make a decent return. eBay's acquisition habits have been more vocally criticized when it comes to Skype, … Read more

The launch of the DiggBar on Thursday was big news. Not only for URL-shortening services, but for the idea of one site bringing some of its features along for the ride, even when a user has left it to go somewhere else.

The idea is not new, though; some services have been doing it for years. We've put together a list of some of the big sites that do it, and why it matters.

Google/Ask/Yahoo/Live Image Search

Searching for images on Google, Ask, Live, and Yahoo all bring along a framed toolbar, or a special framed bar that segments the content. When you click on an image from the results on any of these engines it keeps a little frame on the top of the page that gives you copyright and size information, along with a link to the full-quality version. More importantly though, it lets users start another search or simply hop back to the results page.

Why it's important: All routes go back to the search results--and more importantly, back to the ads that were on the page. If the company can get you to start another search, that's another ad impression. Also, from a user's point of view, it's comforting to have a quick breadcrumb trail to get yourself out of there if it's a page you didn't want to end up on, especially if it's coded to keep your back button from letting you leave the page.

Facebook

Facebook has had a link sharing feature since late 2006. Only recently, however did shared links come with a navigation bar that comes with the users when they click off-site links. The bar includes who posted the item (in case you're passing along something one of your friends originally shared), as well as the option to add your own comment, or re-share it to your news feed or to other Facebook buddies.

Why it's important: Like what the search engines do for images, Facebook is doing for any link its users share. It simply adds some of Facebook's features like commenting and re-sharing, right on top of the site. It's a much bigger deal for Facebook users though, since for anything that needs a lot of real estate, they can check it out in its original location (read: out of Facebook's limited-size news feed), all without feeling like they've left the site. … Read more

Diddit, a site that allows users to share life experiences with others, announced Friday that its "diddits" and "wanna dos" can now be shared with other social networks. Users will be able to deploy new Diddit widgets, showing their lists of what they've done ("diddits") and would like to do ("wanna dos") on their blogs or personal Web sites. With the help of Twitter integration, Diddit users will be able to automatically tweet any of their "diddits" to their followers. Users will also be able to sign in through … Read more

A new kind of Natali Del Conte joins The 404. She references "Octo-pussy" and makes us play Marry/Boff/Kill. We can already tell that HR is going to be on us any second. She brings some big news to the show by announcing CBS will be streaming live online via Ustream.tv "The Early Show" on Saturday morning. It's their first attempt at an interactive, live show. We anticipate a rowdy chat room with Natali on.

On today's show, we chat about the worst kind of fanboys--forgetting the fact that almost all of us are Mac fanboys. (Come on! They just work!) The creators of the costumes from "The Lord of the Rings Trilogy" and "Chronicles of Narnia" bring happiness to a woman who lost her legs when she was younger. They turn her into a mermaid! We also discuss Microsoft's move to ban a user who admitted openly she was a lesbian from Xbox Live. Jeff hates on Digg's new StumbleUpon-like toolbar. And Natali discovers "Spanks for Men." It gives Justin the much-needed muscles. Finally, find out who won our "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" for the Xbox 360.

A new kind of Natali Del Conte joins The 404. She references "Octopussy" and makes us play Marry/Boff/Kill. We can already tell that HR is going to be on us any second. She brings some big news to the show by announcing CBS will be streaming live online via Ustream.tv "The Early Show" on Saturday morning. It's their first attempt at an interactive, live show. We anticipate a rowdy chat room with Natali on.

On today's show, we chat about the worst kind of fanboys--forgetting the fact that almost all of … Read more

Taking a page from StumbleUpon and the now-defunct MySpace News, Digg appears set to roll out a new feature in beta that will bring some of the Digg.com experience along once users leave the social news site to one of its outbound links.

A Flickr photo shows the new toolbar in action. From it you can see that clicked stories gets both a special Digg-flavored short permalink (like TinyURL provides) along with a new menu bar that appears on the top of the content.

This new bar serves double duty. First it lets you keep an eye on how … Read more