Stumpedia: Yet Another Human-Powered Search Engine - What is Stumpedia About?
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You've already seen their logo on the previous page, so I'll just show you the rest of Stumpedia's home page:
Now I'll take it apart for you. The display on the left-hand side, which is constantly updated, features new links and new searches. You can also click on links that will take you to activity in the past 24 hours, seven days, 30 days, or 365 days. The images on the right are user avatars. The “Submit” button I'll detail a little later. Not shown, across the top, are links for Points, Buttons (for displaying the Stumpedia button on your web pages to make it easy for users to submit you), Bookmarklets, the About Us page, and the expected Home, Login and Sign up links.
It's the links across the bottom that confused me. There's one in the middle that's labeled “The Corporation.” When I clicked that, I wasn't taken to further corporate information about Stumpedia; instead, I landed on what appeared to be a page promoting a direct-to-DVD movie. Say what? The “Follow us on Twitter!” link was at least related to Stumpedia, and I got the impression that InverSearch (far left) was a service that the company is offering, but the rest of the links didn't seem directly related to the company at all.
I understand why a search engine would be interested in net neutrality issues, and it's probably convenient for Stumpedia's users to include a link to the BBC on the home page. I'm just not convinced that this is the best way to project a professional image. If you're building a site like this, there are several approaches you can take. You can present a bare bones home page, like Google. You can provide a stream of updates on what's being added, like Delicious (and to Stumpedia's credit, it does, as one of the features of the page). You can even do a variation of the portal route. But those links on the bottom, for the most part, just don't fit in with the theme of the rest of the site.
I found out later, not too surprisingly, that they're paid ads. But they can present a confusing experience to users, unless Stumpedia explains in some way why they're there (and frankly, it took me a while to find the explanation). Fortunately, when I most recently checked the site, I discovered those links had been removed. Apparently Stumpedia has found some other income stream.
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