StumbleUpon launches an addicting iPad app

Social discovery, now munching away your couch time with cool websites across the Web

One of the greatest moments of 2010 had to be the one where StumbleUpon finally launched on the iPhone. “You mean, I don’t have to be cooped up in my bedroom at 3 a.m., bending over my computer in the dark to keep stumbling across the Web forever and ever?” Making StumbleUpon mobile meant taking one of the best online discovery experiences on-the-go.

Today, iOS fans get another little treat: StumbleUpon for iPad.

“With the StumbleUpon iPad App you can discover great content and share it with your friends wherever you are,” said Garrett Camp, StumbleUpon CEO and co-founder. “This new experience lets you be entertained, educated and inspired by great content, whether you’re sitting on the couch, commuting to work or hanging out at the local coffee shop.”

Anyone who has used StumbleUpon on the Web, iPhone or Android will feel at home with StumbleUpon for iPad. You can stumble (either by tapping “Stumble” or by swiping page to page) through your selected topics, through personal favorites or through friend recommendations. The beauty of swiping through stumbles is that the app pre-loads the next pages, so you don’t have to wait for them to load.

Since your account is synced across all the platforms, there’s never any worry about seeing the same stumble twice. And, as we’ve come to expect from any social app, StumbleUpon for iPad makes it dead simple to share links with friends via StumbleUpon, Facebook, Twitter or email.

Ever since StumbleUpon experienced a spring 2011 revitalization, with a $17 million Series B that closed in March from Accel Partners and others, the social discovery service has kicked into high gear. Also in March, the company launched Paid Discovery, an innovative advertising platform that harnesses the unique potential for targeting stumblers interested in certain topics.

In April, it emerged that StumbleUpon is now processing around a billion stumbles every month. That’s a lot of social sharing. The service now boasts 15 million users and mobile is its fastest growing segment, with traffic increasing 35 percent month to month.