“The social media market is crowded, therefore it is imperative that we provide our users with an experience that is superior to all other discovery engines,” said Anoakie Turner, software architect for StumbleUpon. “MaxCDN allows us to do just that and we are incredibly pleased with the performance we’ve achieved to this point.”

“With more than 25 million users worldwide, StumbleUpon was in need of a web performance optimization solution that scales worldwide,” said Samir Said, vice president of MaxCDN sales. “It is an honor to be selected by StumbleUpon and we look forward to a successful relationship with the company.”

Last year, StumbleUpon placed more of an emphasis on its own site as a content destination discovery. Historically, StumbleUpon has been mainly about pointing you to content on other sites, with little need to visit StumbleUpon.com itself.

To a major extent, it’s still about pointing you other pages on other sites, but with the recent redesign, there is more of a reason to stick around on StumbleUpon’s own site to at least browse thumbnails, channels, and other users’ profiles before selecting the content you want to venture to.

Despite these changes, the site is still a major traffic driver to sites all over the web.

Update 2: A StumbleUpon spokesperson tells WebProNews, “We can confirm that there is third party who is sending out spam emails that look and feel like StumbleUpon emails. We encourage all who receive them to be careful, and not to click on any links in the email. We are currently investigating it.”

The company also confirms to us that they did indeed send emails about these changes, so that part of it is legit.

StumbleUpon appears to be making a move a number of its social media peers have made in recent months, by seeking further engagement from its members via email.

The company has been sending emails to users discussing their email notification settings, and has made some changes with regards to the kinds of emails people get from StumbleUpon.

“This is a quick note to let you know about some changes we’ve made to the email settings in your StumbleUpon account,” the email says. “We’ve created a bunch of new notification options that allow you to have more control over what types of emails you’ll receive from us. These new notification options are not compatible with the old settings, so your settings have been reset. We apologize for any inconvenience, and want to make sure we only send you the emails you want to receive.”

To be perfectly honest, it’s been a long time since I’ve looked at my email settings on StumbleUpon, and since the company didn’t go into specifics, I can’t say exactly what all has changed, but here’s what the options look like now:

One thing that must be relatively new is the addition of the “Tell me when a Stumbler follows my List” option, as the Lists feature itself was only released several months ago.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Google+ (especially Twitter) have all added various types emails for users within the last year or so. It’s a good move in terms of keeping users coming back, and keeping the service fresh in their minds. Of course, that is dependent on users checking those boxes above.

Related:

Twitter Wants You to Email Tweets to Your Non-Twitter-Using Friends

You Can Now Receive Twitter’s “Best-Of” Emails Daily, If That’s Something You’re Into

Twitter Finds Another Reason To Send Users Email

Google+ Starts Relying More On Email For Engagement

Is Email The Future Of Social Media?

It’s nothing new. The subreddit has actually been banned for quite some time, and if anyone cares enough, they can probably get it going again. So, in hopes that this article reaches the hardcore StumbleUpon users, this is a message to you. Just because it’s banned, doesn’t mean it can’t be re-created.

A reddit spokesperson tells WebProNews, “The subreddit was created a couple years back and nothing was ever done with it. It got automatically banned by our spam system, and no one has asked for it since.”

“People can request control of banned and/or dormant subreddits in /r/redditrequest,” he says. “/r/stumbleupon would be handled exactly the same as any other banned/dormant subreddit.”

In other words, if you want to start a reddit community about StumbleUpon, go for it. There is a form here, which will allow you to request control of the subreddit.

It’s entirely possible that there is no interest in a StumbleUpon subreddit, but it is interesting that there is an active to semi-active subreddit for most other social sites on the web. You’ll find subreddits for Facebook and Twitter, of course, as well as for Tumblr, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Digg, Myspace, etc.

The StumbleUpon subreddit has apparently been banned for two years. StumbleUpon has gone through a lot of changes in that time, so even if there was zero interest back then, who knows at this point? I wonder how much interest there would be if there wasn’t a big “banned” message on the destination. Most people that happen to stumble upon this subreddit in the first place (who may have been interested if there was something there) probably won’t take the time to actually request control of it and get the community started. If someone were to take it on, would there be enough interest to generate enough content to sustain a small community?

StumbleUpon, while it has plenty of social elements, isn’t the most social of social services. Reddit has only gained popularity in the time since the subreddit was banned. Perhaps it would make a good place for StumbleUpon users (of which there are still many) to talk about StumbleUpon. There are still StumbleUpon stories being submitted to reddit. Most aren’t getting many upvotes, but they’re coming from different users. Perhaps they would do better if they were in a StumbleUpon subreddit.

Definitely some more upbeat news from the company, which just laid off 30% of its staff.

Two grand prize winners will be selected to receive tickets to the Oscar Fan Experience red carpet bleacher seats at the event. The sweepstakes will run for 14 days (ending January 30), and on each day, users can stumble through a new list of content curated by the Academy. Categories include Oscar Red Carpet Fashion, Best Picture Nominees, etc.

Similar to a sweepstakes the company ran at the end of the year, a few people will stumble onto prize pages each day. Prizes other than the grand prizes come from Condé Nast, Etsy, Gogo, HotelTonight, Seamless, SPIN, TaskRabbit, Warby Parker and others. Daily winners will also be eligible to enter to win the grand prize.

“There’s a lot of interesting Oscars content online that many people have never seen and partnering with StumbleUpon is a fun way to help them discover it,” said Josh Spector, the Academy’s managing director of digital media and marketing. “When you Stumble the Oscars you’re going to find classic behind-the-scenes photos, amazing fan creations, sneak peek videos revealing details about this year’s show, and even the chance to be on the red carpet yourself this year – it’s a great package for Oscars fans.”

“We’re excited to deliver opportunities for movie fans to get a front-row look at this year’s ceremony – not only virtually but also in-person,” said Marc Leibowitz, VP of Business Development and Marketing at StumbleUpon. “With the help of the Academy, we’re able to present unique content about the nominees that goes beyond what viewers may already know.”

Check out the sweepstakes here.

StumbleUpon’s Mike Mayzel tells WebProNews, “StumbleUpon is restructuring to enable the company to become more streamlined, focused and to better execute against its goals in 2013. As a result of these changes, the company will be profitable and will operate more quickly and efficiently and experiment more aggressively. We continue to grow and remain focused on providing the best discovery experience on the Web.”

According to the TechCrunch report, the company’s revenu has grown by 300% over the last three years. In recent months it has pushed out some major new products, like a big overhaul of its website, and new apps for iOS, Android and Windows 8, all complete with new discoverability features that really do make StumbleUpon itself more of a destination in addition to sending users all around the web.

As far as that referral traffic goes, a report in November indicated that it was sending less traffic to sites, which StumbleUpon assured us was actually wrong, and that traffic was increasing.

Mayzel says the restructuring affects all areas of the company, including engineering, product and marketing.

Danny Sullivan posted an article today about how StumbleUpon is even getting these kinds of requests. Given the amount of traffic StumbleUpon can send to websites itself, completely independent of Google, it’s hard to express how ridiculous this is.

StumbleUpon confirmed with us that they do indeed get these messages from webmasters. The company tells WebProNews, “We typically receive a few of these requests a week. We evaluate the links based on quality and if they don’t meet our user experience criteria we take them down. Since we drive a lot of traffic to sites all over the Web, we encourage all publishers to keep and add quality links to StumbleUpon. Our community votes on the content they like and don’t like so the best content is stumbled and shared more often while the less popular content is naturally seen less frequently.”

As Sullivan says, “StumbleUpon to remove your link is a waste of time. I’d say. That’s the type of link you actually do want.”

If Google has a problem with links you’re getting from StumbleUpon (which it seems unlikely that they would), you’re probably better off with the StumbleUpon referrals anyway. That said, you shouldn’t be spamming StumbleUpon, and should be creating quality content that SU users would enjoy (and there are a ton of very niche categories). StumbleUpon won’t hesitate to ban you if you’re abusing its service.

Now, Android users can get in on the fun, as the update has finally hit Google Play. It comes with a new interface, and a dynamic homepage, which lets you see your friends’ activity, what’s trending, or content recommended specifically for you.

The app also takes advantage of the recently launched StumbleDNA feature (explained here). Basically, it lets users see how your interests compare with theirs at a glance, which may encourage them to follow you.

The app also comes with the Slide feature, which lets you stumble through content without having to wait for a page to load. We also talked more about that here.

“All these cool features are housed in a sleek new design, with more intuitive navigation so that it’s easier than ever to jump into the most epic stuff on the Web,” says StumbleUpon associate product marketing manager Katherine Kramer. “You can seamlessly Stumble, rate and share all from the bottom toolbar, and your Profile is easily accessible from the top menu.”

You may notice that the Lists feature is missing from the update, but don’t worry. StumbleUpon assures us that it’s on the way, so stay tuned. The feature was added to the iOS app in November (after the initial redesign).

“What was on Stumblers’ minds in 2012? We pulled data from our over 25 million members to see what was Stumbled the most and put our findings in an infographic posted below,” the company says. “Click each category or name to dive deeper. Who knows where you’ll end up next?”

Here’s 2012 in the Stumble-iverse:

2012 was a pretty big year for StumbleUpon, as it launched a major site redesign and introduced some new features core to the SU experience.

They’re giving away prizes like a $100 Amex Gift Card and a NOOK HD – 8GB.

Each day, they’re putting out a List Of The Day with what they consider to be some of the best stumbles of the year. The lists can be found on the sweepstakes page. You can just stumble through the list, and winners will stumble upon the prize somewhere in the mix.

The lists are published at midnight.

“The odds of winning a prize depend on the total number of users who participate in the Sweepstakes each day of the Sweepstakes,” the company says. “No cash or other substitution of prizes is permitted, except at the sole option of StumbleUpon for a prize of equal or greater value. StumbleUpon will not replace any lost or stolen prizes. Winners are solely responsible for any and all federal, state, provincial and local taxes, if any, that apply to prizes.”

Winners will be notified by email within seven days.

“We’ve all been there. You’re Stumbling on your iPhone while you’re on the bus to school, but right when you Stumble upon the MOST,” says associate product marketing manager Katherine Kramer. “AMAZING. PAGE. EVER, it’s time to stash your phone away and head to class. If only you could have saved that page by adding it to the awesome List you just created on StumbleUpon.com, right? Well, today is a day to be thankful for.”

“You’ve probably Liked TONS of pages on StumbleUpon, and Lists give you the chance to organize all those pages into personalized collections that are meaningful to you,” she says. “Whether you’re into Fitness or Architecture, sharing your Lists with your friends helps you express yourself and show what you’re interested in and knowledgeable about. And with Thanksgiving and the holidays right around the corner, creating Lists like Nuffin’ But Stuffin’ or Make It a DIY Holiday is a great way to start planning for all the festivities! If you’ve never created a List before, we’ve helped you get started by automatically gifting you a “Save for Later” List, where you can keep all those amazing Stumbles to go back to later.”

Here’s a tutorial video StumbleUpon recently put out about using lists:

The company says that users have already created over 200,000 lists.

StumbleUpon users with Android are still waiting on the company to release an updated Android app.