eBay to Acquire StumpleUpon? and Why?
The Blogosphere is buzzing with a rumor that eBay is on the verge of announcing a $40m+ acquisition of StumbleUpon - SU. SU is a toolbar/website that allows you to discover new websites that the COMMUNITY recommends. Personally I've found it a bit of a time hole, but hey isn't that what community is all about? ;-)
Om@B2 speculates that eBay will use SU+Skype to do an end-run on Google's search dominance. Ok, not sure I buy into that.
Personally I think eBay is having a really really hard time with the finding experience on eBay and they could use the SU system to fix that problem. Imagine an addition to the eBay toolbar that helps you find stuff on eBay tailored to a) what you like and b) what your social network likes. That would actually be pretty useful IMO.
Interesting enough Meg spent a fair amount on today's Q1 conference call talking up all the work they are doing on Finding (what all other inet co's call search) and how strategic Finding is to improving the slow-growth seen in the USA marketplace biz. Could she have been laying the groundwork for the SU deal? Only time will tell, so stay tuned true believers.
