Tumblr

Tumblr is an online website aimed at those who like to express themselves and blog to a whole virtual audience. It claims it's "The Easiest way to blog"- and in ways, they're right. The whole Tumblr idea was created by a group of people who believed the Internet needed a new and fresh way to blog online.




Signing up to this site couldn't be easier; with only an email address, password of your choice and a URL required to join the Tumblr community. This user friendly system may attract a lot of new Bloggers who can avoid a long and thorough sign-up induction that is common on other Blogging sites. This is a positive difference from other blogging sites that may require many personal details such as name, address etc to be recorded for their data. It also keeps your personal security to a maximum as personal data can't be lost or shared with third party sites as they do not have enough information to release that would be of interest. However once you are signed up for the site you must take a small portion of time to name your blog, create your theme and setting up your community of followers.

The Tumblr system allows you to "publish anything"; while that may not be strictly true Tumblr does enable many features for you to update what's on your mind, whatever it is. You can quickly blog Text, Photos, Quotes, Links, Audio, Video or even begin a chat with fellow Tumblr users about a subject of your choice. This gives an option to blog almost anything you could think of, and is popular among a wide range of audience. This variation of blogging means that the website holds host to a huge variety of subjects that can be blogged about; so whatever you're interested in you'll be sure to find hundreds of related posts in the Directory tab when you search for it. Tumblr is certainly a less formal way of blogging than Blogger for example; it is mostly pictures and random thoughts that are shared however on blogger there is a more formal tone and often news articles and reports are shared to followers. This informality could explain why 72% of Tumblr users are under the age of 20; it's suited to their ages- quick, easy, interesting and cool. I personally was recommended to the site by a friend and have become an avid Tumblr user and have convinced several other peers to sign up to the site. 

The new 'Bookmarklet' feature on Tumblr allows you to blog anything you may come across on the Internet by the click of a button- this could be an interesting article, funny video you've found on YouTube or even a new song you've downloaded. This method may appeal to people who blog on the move or do not spend a lot of time solely updating their profiles and would prefer to blog something as they find it online. This means that if you stumble upon something interesting whilst you are browsing the web you can instantly share it with your followers by the click of a button; you don't have to sign back in to Tumblr to share it. This makes Tumblr-ing a much more rapid process as it can be done on the move, or while you are busy doing other things. 

You can also link your Tumblr account with Facebook or Twitter; if you have accounts on these sites you can post your latest Blogs, Posts or Tweets on any of the other. This may be useful if you have a smaller community of Bloggers on Tumblr, but a large number of friends on Facebook who do not have Tumblr accounts; you can share any particularly important Blogs with everyone you want. The makers of Tumblr may have done this as they saw the popularity of social networking sites such as Facebook and knew by promoting their posts via it they are advertising to a much larger community. This is a good way to attract new members and allow current members to share their thoughts with their larger community of friends on Facebook or Twitter.  

Another useful feature available on Tumblr is the ability to Text or Email blog updates directly to your Tumblr wall. These can be in the form of texts, image attachments, links, audio files and videos- all are compatible to be transformed into Tumblr posts. These means that you can blog wherever you are; even if you don't have Internet access as you can use SMS to update frequently. A new feature recently released was also the Tumblr Application for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch; this version of Tumblr provides all the usual features seen online but can be used as long as wifi access is available. This is another factor that may appeal to youngsters; the ability to access the site via their mobile may increase the 'coolness' of Tumblr and allows them to use their mobiles (which are often always on the person) to keep on blogging. 

Tumblr also provides certain privacy options and settings that can monitor who reads what your post; you can 'follow' certain Tumblr accounts that you may find interesting (these may have been suggested to you via the Suggestion feature which recognises subjects and posts you may be interested in based on your blogging history). If you only want your Tumblr friends to view your posts then this can be done easily; or you can even create your own group of certain individuals (such as colleagues or members of a project group), only people within this group can see the things posted- a good way to communicate and research easily. This level of security ensures that only people that you want to see your posts can, and not just anyone on the site. 

Tumblr has been highly acclaimed in the press around the world; the regional newspaper for the base of Tumblr says;

"Tumblr—which is beloved by its users for its clean interface, ease of use and community"

New York Observer

Even in the UK Tumblr has made the Press, with critics comparing it to the other Social Networking giants available today on the web;

"Weblogs? Been there, done that. Facebook? It's full of kids. Twitter? That's so 2006, darling. No, the smart thing to be doing online these days is tumblelogging, which is to weblogs what text messages are to email - short, to the point, and direct."

The Telegraph

Advantages:

• It's many forms of blogging make it convenient 
• You can customise your site as much as your like; from domain names to themes
• Allows you to 'follow' people who blog posts linked to your interests and hobbies
• There is an in built community of bloggers all over the world so there is already and established network
• It allows for a wide variety of posts to be created

Disadvantages:

• It takes a lot of time and effort for you to keep the level of posts high enough to keep your followers interested 
• It's only really suitable for short posts, or specific posts (such as audio/video) and may not appeal to those who blog long and detailed extracts
• The traffic is often extremely high and frequently causes the server to crash as it cannot deal with the number of visitors.

The following links provides recent press articles about Tumblr:

Article highlighted the problems with the number of people that use Tumblr and the problems that could occur.

http://social.venturebeat.com/2010/09/07/tumblr-growing-pains/

Article reviewing Tumblr and how it compares to existing blogging sites

http://www.networkworld.com/reviews/2010/081310-.html