Stumble in Safari (Or Any Other Browser)

For years Firefox users have been able to enjoy the many benefits of the StumbleUpon toolbar, which allows users to experience the StumbleUpon social bookmarking site in all its glory. Now thanks to Stumbi developer Eli Kaufman, Safari users can get much of the same functionalities that have made the Firefox add-on a wildly popular download.

StumbleUpon is like channel surfing for the web. The site, which ranks in the top 500 on Alexa Traffic Rankings, lets you specify a list of categories you’re interested in, whether it be art, music, humor, technology or a slew of others, and then jump randomly between popular sites in those areas. Not uncommon for a social bookmarking site, Stumble features user profiles and friends lists. Once you start Stumbling, you may be surprised at how addictive it is.

Unfortunately Safari users were, for the most part, left out to dry on some of the site’s most unique features. Relying on the SIMBL InputManager that Saft and PithHelmet use to integrate with Safari, Stumbi adds an entry in the menu bar, providing options for surfing to the next random page and for rating the current page. These options can be triggered using built-in keyboard shortcuts or by specifying your own shortcuts in System Preferences.

The $2 shareware application is a great option for Safari users, but those using other browsers, like Opera or OmniWeb, will have to turn to bookmarklets. By placing javascript links in your bookmarks bar you can create the Toolbarless StumbleUpon. Users can pick and choose which ones they want to bookmark, with features including logging into the Stumble service, giving a site a positive rating, submitting a new page to the directory, displaying page reviews and switching content filters. The Toolbarless StumbleUpon, dubbed “bookmarklets for surviving without the toolbar,” is free.