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Stumbling--It's the New Surfing

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In the early days of the Internet when email accounts weren't free, and a telephone call interrupted your modem, the term 'surfing' was used to describe the act of mindlessly wandering the increasingly cluttered halls of the ether. No doubt thought up by ageing hipsters at the long tables of AOL, the term implied that the World Wide Web was a free-flowing, wild force that could be enjoyed with relative ease (a semantic contradiction to the two abbreviations used to represent the Internet: Net and Web, both of which are means used to catch, secure, and eventually devour). We were told we could 'surf the Net' as if it would take us someplace.



However, surfing requires direction. And if you have a sense of direction when on the Web, you're not really surfing; you're leap-frogging. The act described by the relatively poorly named 'surfing' is perhaps better captured by the metaphor of 'stumbling'. You're walking along, and suddenly trip over--what's this?--an animation describing the 9-dimensioned universe of quantum physics! Fun! Unless you knew you wanted to see such an animation, you never would have surfed in that direction. This is where StumbleUpon comes in. StumbleUpon is a little browser plug-in that surfs for you, allowing you to 'stumble' upon things you like. You should try it. Honestly. It will open your eyes to the vast vastness of the Internet. Also, it will show you things you didn't know existed. It's how I found out about SeeqPod.



Remember the days (and you youngsters will find this amusing) when Napster was free? Remember when you could type the name of a song, find it, download it, and not worry about retards telling you you were 'stealing'? Well, SeeqPod is not like that. But it's close--sort of. It trawls the Internet looking for mp3s, and displays them like running commentary on your screen. I've spent hours on it and have found live videos of Neutral Milk Hotel, bizarre remakes of Shady Lane, and just about every lo-fi Yo La Tengo bootleg you could think of.



The best part about both of these things, unlike the early days of email, is that they're free. It won't cost you a cent to stumble or to seeq, which is the way the Internet should be.



Reviewed: StumbleUpon, SeeqPod

Recommend for those who'd rather float than surf

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