Cloudhiker - StumbleUpon for the IndyWeb
Back in the olden days, before Google sucked and the algorithms ruined our beloved wild and crazy Internet, there was a mythical site called StumbleUpon where you could spend hours going down rabbit holes of obscure websites. It was a randomized recommendation based search engine, sort of. You could find stuff clicking through StumbleUpon that you couldn't find through conventional searches.
I recently discovered a new version of this venerable web veteran. The site is Cloudhiker and it currently has 19,366 web sites cataloged in 19 categories that have been viewed some 18.8 million times. You can add your personal site to the mix as well as other sites you enjoy. They will all be reviewed before being added to the database. All of the sites become searchable and you can get stats on how often they've been viewed and how often they've been upvoted by viewers.
Cloudhiker's "About" page reads like this:
Cloudhiker was created to bring back the nostalgic thrill of the classic Web 2.0 exploration era. You'll encounter completely random websites. If possible, the website will be shown directly to you, allowing you to dive in and engage with it firsthand. Here, you won't come across clickbait from Buzzfeed or lackluster blog articles; instead, you'll discover sites that are genuinely captivating, unconventional, mind-blowing, or geared towards learning. Some will tickle your funny bone, some will stimulate your thoughts, and others may prove invaluable for your work with their exceptional tools. All sites available on Cloudhiker are carefully reviewed and selected based on strict rules. Those rules can be found on the Submission Rules page.
If you want to submit a site, please sign up for an account first. The account is free of charge. After submitting your site, it will be reviewed as soon as possible.
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