Man, I love the Web. Just when I think it can’t get any better, there’s always another idea that blows me away. Over the weekend (when I should have been learning Ruby!), I discovered tumblelogs, and I’m thinking they might be the Next Big Thing.
Basically, a tumblelog is a mini blog focusing on short form, mixed-media posts that share the thoughts, experiences, and discoveries of their authors without much commentary to go along. Folks share photos, video clips, quotations, and whatever snippets strike their fancy throughout the day in their raw forms. It’s blogging at its most basic, and it is riveting.
While there are stand-alone tumblelog platforms, the best and easiest place to get started is tumblr.com. From sign up to published, tumblr was the quickest Web publishing app I’ve ever used.
Their posting interface lets you post photos, links, quotes, videos, or regular blog-type posts. They even have a feature that lets you post photos directly from your cell phone. And of course, just like a blog, tumblr provides RSS syndication for your tumblelog. You can even import other RSS feeds. All of these features are easy to activate with just a few clicks.
While there only a few stock templates to choose from at this point, the look of your tumblelog is fully customizable if you know some basic HTML and CSS. Tumblr is still pretty new, and I’m sure they’ll be adding more features and templates as time goes on.
My favorite feature of the tumblr interface is the “Share on Tumblr” button that you can save in your bookmarks folder. When you come across a Web site or a photo or a video that you want to post to your tumblelog, just click the “Share on Tumblr” link, and it launches a mini-posting window. You can even highlight a chunk of text on a Web page, click Share on Tumblr, and the hightlighted text will be automatically imported to your posting window. Tumblr makes posting incredibly easy and intuitive.
After the huge growth of twitter during the SxSW festival, there are a lot of people who think the next wave of social networking will focus on these micro-blogging platforms. I messed around with twitter, but it didn’t stick. Tumblelogs, however, have captured my imagination. Let me know if you feel the same.
Eventually, I’ll have a supplemental tumbleblog for One Thing New, but for now check out my sports-themed tumblelog, TumbleBum.
