One thing I like about the eBay (EBAY) acquisition of StumbleUpon is its six-year history, and measurable growth. This is a company that has proved itself and has started to grow strongly, as it now has reached about 2.3 million memebers.
The service the company provides, is it searches the Web for content consistent with the interests of the users through a downloadable toolbar. All you have to do then is click on the "Stumble" button in niches you've chosen and view what you're interested in.
From there users can choose to give the received content a thumbs up or thumbs down to rate it. Something similar to the system eBay uses for its auctions. eBay also likes it because it has built a community around the thought, input and experience of others.
"StumbleUpon's community rating mechanism--the thumbs up or thumbs down choice--is absolutely consistent with the way eBay users provide feedback," said Jose Mallabo, an eBay spokesman.
It's not too much of a stretch to see a not-too-difficult integration between the two companies, although eBay hasn't revealed their thoughts in that area yet.
To me, this is a safe, but important buy. Again, eBay knows exactly what it's getting because of the length of the history of the company, but it's not what would be considered an "old" technology or company in the sense of dated. Rather, it has a tremendous amount of room for growth in a space that targets the specific desires and needs of people looking for social proof in their online excursions.
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