WebProNews

Tag: iframe

  • StumbleUpon Update Gives Users Option To Hide That iFrame

    Let it never be said that the StumbleUpon team doesn’t listen to its users. After considering the concerns of people that wanted an option to hide the StumbleBar, that omnipresent iFrame that floats above any site you’re browsing while logged into StumbleUpon, StumbleUpon has announced that users will now be able to hide the Stumblebar while signed into their account.

    Prior to the recent redesign of StumbleUpon, users could simply click on an ‘X’ to remove the Stumblebar but doing this would leave Stumblers with no way to resume Stumbling without returning to StumbleUpon.com. When the site got a redesign, it did away with the ‘X’ completely but this was met with some grumbling from Stumblers. To appease those desiring of a way to hide the Stumblebar, StumbleUpon has implemented an option that allows users to toggle the presence of the Stumblebar and thereby pause and resume Stumbling to their heart’s content. While the change doesn’t appear to have rolled out for all accounts (like mine), below is an example of where you can expect to find the feature in the ‘Gears’ menu:

    And no, the updates to StumbleUpon did not change my name to AliceWilliams.

    Another concern expressed by users under the redesign was the removal of a direct link to the original content source. Again, StumbleUpon has responded kindly to user feedback and reinstated a direct link from the webpage’s info page to make sure that webmasters still receive proper credit through StumbleUpon. The change will enable search engines to resume crawling content just as they did in the previous StumbleUpon design. This should allay any of those preoccupations with whether or not the new design will affect the SEO value of links.

    StumbleUpon also hinted at a few of the upcoming changes users can expect to see in the next few months:

    We’ll be creating an activity feed of content Liked by your friends, and make it easier to connect with people you know. We’ll also be adding search for your Likes to find specific content you have enjoyed in the past. We’re also investigating ways of organizing one’s Likes, so groups of similar content can be shared with others. We plan to start migrating everyone into the new StumbleUpon design in early March, at which point these features will start to roll out.

    For those of you that were unsatisfied with the initial changes to StumbleUpon, how do these changes affect your feelings towards the site’s usability? Better? Let us know below in the comment section.

  • StumbleUpon Explains The New iFrame, Removal Of Direct Links

    Concerning an article I wrote yesterday about StumbleUpon pushing their iFrame as well as eliminating any direct links that go back to the original content sources, StumbleUpon’s Direct of Communications, Mike Mayzel, got in touch with me to clarify the changes. After a few exchanged correspondences, here’s some more info on the Why for these changes:

    First, Mayzel points out that the iframe isn’t actually anything new. “We have had the iFrame for years, but it appears some people think it’s brand new,” he said.

    And while we’re on the subject of that ubiquitous iFrame, Mayzel said that the changes made to the StumbleBar were intended to enhance the Stumble experience. He said:

    Under the previous implementation, signed-in users would accidentally click the ‘X’ in the web StumbleBar, after which there was no way to resume Stumbling without returning to StumbleUpon.com (frustrating many users). As a result, with the new version we modified the StumbleBar to minimize accidental closures by signed-in users. Signed-in users can still sign out via the ‘Gears’ menu. And as has always been the case, non-signed-in users can exit the web StumbleBar by clicking the ‘X’. We are evaluating alternative solutions to the current signed-in implementation, including providing the ability to surface the source link (underlying URL) through one of the second level menus (e.g. Share, Comments or Gears).

    There’s one down. And in case any of you cynics are wondering how StumbleUpon knows that users were “accidentally” clicking the ‘X’ as opposed to intentionally clicking it, Mayzel told me that they determined users were in fact doing it by accident from information they gathered from usability studies and feedback from their user community, such as forums and focus groups.

    So as for the removal of those direct links to the content sources?

    The current implementation was designed to mitigate the confusion many users experienced when clicking to inconsistently implemented third party links from StumbleUpon.com (i.e., will or won’t there be a web StumbleBar on the page she clicked on). To address the concerns raised by SearchEngineLand et al. about the possible adverse impact of our current approach on SEO, we are working on adding direct links that refer back to the source content in a way that both minimizes user confusion and preserves SEO benefits.

    And for anyone worried about the impact any of these changes might have on SEO value of the links indexed in StumbleUpon, Mayzel said, “We believe the changes have had minimal impact on SEO.” In the event that any unintended negative effects arise, he added that they are “working on adding direct links that refer back to the source content in a way that both minimizes user confusion and preserves SEO benefits.”

    If you’re a regular Stumbler, do these clarifications alleviate any of the concerns you had about the recent changes to StumbleUpon? Let us know in the comments below.

  • StumbleUpon Pushes Iframe & Gets Rid Of Direct Links

    Even after their big facelift last year, StumbleUpon still isn’t done making changes to the their site. More and more, it seems that the social media site is paring itself down to as minimal as possible while still improving traffic and content for users. They’ll even tell you that they’re trying to create a customized Internet based on your personal interests. There’s just one catch: if you’re logged into StumbleUpon, it’s a little harder to leave the StumbleUpon experience and view the original source. Watch and listen:

    As StumbleUpon makes these changes, one of the things they’ve begun to emphasize is the iframe at the top of the browser window that you use to navigate through pages as well as build up your profile so that StumbleUpon can optimize the quality of the content it funnels to you. In fact, they’ve relegated all of your activity through the iframe and guess what: you don’t have an option to remove the iframe.

    If you’ve been using StumbleUpon for a while – at least before the big changes started to roll out last year – another of the things that may be apparent to you is the removal of any link that sends you back to the content sources. Unless you choose to log out and then view the site, you’re going to view the content through StumbleUpon whether you like it or not.

    Brent Csutoras, writing for SearchEngineLand, noted the lack of controversy within the tech industry concerning this change. “When Digg did the same thing by launching their DiggBar,” he wrote, “the tech industry was up in arms and the DiggBar even had an option to close” – an option not available here with StumbleUpon’s new change.

    At any rate, StumbleUpon’s giving you a little less flexibility when it comes to opting out of viewing content through their filter. Have the changes affected how you use StumbleUpon at all? Did you even notice? Let us know in the comments section below.