Su.pr from Stumble Upon is Awesome

Thanks to microblogging services like Twitter, URL shortening services are a big hit these days. And everyone is getting in on the act. Stumble Upon is currently beta testing its own beta testing service called Su.pr (pronounced Super). Su.pr works more like the Digg url shortener than traditional url shorteners. I got my beta testers account recently and after testing it briefly, I am impressed.

Su,pr sports a simple and elegent interface. Once you login you can shorten your url or even post an update to Twitter and Facebook. Su.pr also includes a scheduler that allows you to schedule posting of updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Like Digg, Su.pr also frames the contents of the target webpage and displays floating toolbars (you can see Su.pr in action at http://su.pr/2BRNHB).These toolbars are what make Su.pr so awesome. The sidebar automatically highlights other popular content from your website and encourages the reader to further explore your website. Not only that Su.pr also provides the option to retweet your message, and share the link on Facebook. Other options include the standard thumbs up and thumbs down buttons and option to stumble through the URL submitter’s favourites.

Su.pr seems to have learnt from the backlash against Digg. To ensure that you don’t loose out on your search engine juice Stumble Upon is even giving you the option of hosting the Su.pr url shortening service. This will allow you to create urls like http://www.yourdomain.com/asf instead of http://www.su.pr/asf. Su.pr also allows access to various useful StumbleUpon stats such as number of clicks received by your Su.pr links, number of hits your pages have received from Stumble Upon and your most popular pages. It even suggests your ideal posting time for maximum impact based on a number of factors including your twitter stream.

Su.pr is still in private beta, and invites are quite rare. However, if you are a webmaster/content publisher and you do get the oppertunity to try it out, make sure that you don’t miss it. Su.pr is a valuable resource for webmasters and can have significant impact on your traffic.