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March 05, 2007

Tumblr

Try to get past the damned trendy dropped-e in the name, cause Tumblr is a really nice service. Inspired by Project.ion.ist (which belongs to the other genus of “clever” URL spellings), it’s a service that lets you set up a “tumblelog”. Like Twitter, it’s a way to post bite-sized posts (links, pictures, snippets of conversations, or one-liners). My own blogging seems to have polarized into thousand-word book reviews or else ten-word Twitter or del.icio.us posts anyway, so Tumblr’s a nice fit. (And Tumblr can easily pull in your del.icio.us links, Twitter posts, and Flickr photos into one stream, if you want.)

I’m sure you’ll agree that the world hardly needs another blogging or meta-blogging service, but it’s worth signing up for Tumblr just to check out its design. Like online portfolio service Carbonmade, it nails some current design trends—big fonts, gradients, “simplicity”, clever writing—in really thoughtful and appropriate ways, without looking merely trendy. In both applications, stuff you do once is big and easy, and stuff you do often is accessible and quick. Even the sign-up confirmation email is lovely. It’s also nice that Tumblr’s not overly Ajax-y, too, except where it’s really useful (like previewing your design changes).

Posted by Andrew at March 5, 2007 10:09 AM

Comments

Posted by: Pat at March 9, 2007 03:18 PM