In the space between a long-form blog and a short-form Twitter account, there are mini-blog services like Posterous and Tumblr that seek to make blogging much more immediate, support all types of rich media, allow for longer entries if needed, and support short spurts that auto-post to Twitter as well.
Once the niche powerhouse dominating this middle space, Tumblr has since seen Posterous, the somewhat unremarkable email-to-blog platform, rise from obscurity, iterate at lightning pace, and start to build up well-deserved web buzz and high profile users.
This tumbling and posturing web-aholic has been using both sites for quite some time, so the head-to-head you're about to read is filled with intimate knowledge of both applications.
Both Posterous and Tumblr have bookmarklets that make grabbing content as you browse and posting it to your respective site easy as can be. When it comes to posting original entries from the web, Tumblr's text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, and video options are just plain killer.
Posterous, though not really made with the web-created post in mind, does have a web posting WYSIWYG editor that does just fine. It's a little bit more difficult to post and preview, but that's not where Posterous tries to excel.
Posterous' knockout posting punch is email — the technology that most of us take for granted on a daily basis. What Posterous can do with your emails is simply incredible, and we recommend creating all of your posts by emailing post@posterous.com.
The email post creation process is dead simple. Email whatever you want — photos, videos (even iPhone 3G S vids), audio — to post@posterous.com and it will do the rest. Your subject line becomes the title, the email body your post description, and you can even add tags to your post by adding them with the appropriate syntax to the subject line: ((tag: social media, photo)).
We'd also be remiss if we didn't discuss mobile options for posting to Tumblr and Posterous. While we've made it clear that email is the way to go with Posterous, we haven't yet stressed the fact that this means your blogging activities are incredibly mobile on any smartphone. Take a video on your iPhone 3G S, email it to Posterous, and instantly have it pushed out to the other social sites you have integrated (like Twitter). Tumblr, however, does have a pretty fantastic iPhone app, and even allows for audio posts if you call 1-866-584-6757 and record your message. Their email and SMS posting options work just fine, but they're just not as exciting as the competition's.
Once the niche powerhouse dominating this middle space, Tumblr has since seen Posterous, the somewhat unremarkable email-to-blog platform, rise from obscurity, iterate at lightning pace, and start to build up well-deserved web buzz and high profile users.
This tumbling and posturing web-aholic has been using both sites for quite some time, so the head-to-head you're about to read is filled with intimate knowledge of both applications.
Posting Options
Both Posterous and Tumblr have bookmarklets that make grabbing content as you browse and posting it to your respective site easy as can be. When it comes to posting original entries from the web, Tumblr's text, photo, quote, link, chat, audio, and video options are just plain killer.
Posterous, though not really made with the web-created post in mind, does have a web posting WYSIWYG editor that does just fine. It's a little bit more difficult to post and preview, but that's not where Posterous tries to excel.
Posterous' knockout posting punch is email — the technology that most of us take for granted on a daily basis. What Posterous can do with your emails is simply incredible, and we recommend creating all of your posts by emailing post@posterous.com.
The email post creation process is dead simple. Email whatever you want — photos, videos (even iPhone 3G S vids), audio — to post@posterous.com and it will do the rest. Your subject line becomes the title, the email body your post description, and you can even add tags to your post by adding them with the appropriate syntax to the subject line: ((tag: social media, photo)).
We'd also be remiss if we didn't discuss mobile options for posting to Tumblr and Posterous. While we've made it clear that email is the way to go with Posterous, we haven't yet stressed the fact that this means your blogging activities are incredibly mobile on any smartphone. Take a video on your iPhone 3G S, email it to Posterous, and instantly have it pushed out to the other social sites you have integrated (like Twitter). Tumblr, however, does have a pretty fantastic iPhone app, and even allows for audio posts if you call 1-866-584-6757 and record your message. Their email and SMS posting options work just fine, but they're just not as exciting as the competition's.
