Difference between revisions of "Tumblr"
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Revision as of 19:09, 11 December 2012
| Community | students, professionals, etc. |
| Membership | open, free, registered |
| Privacy | features that support privacy |
| Self Identity | features that support identity |
| Features | microblogging |
| Status | |
| Launch Date | April 27, 2007 |
| Users | number of people |
Founded in 2007, Tumblr has grown to host 75.9 million blogs. In terms of web traffic, the site is globally rated at rank 37, and rank 20 in the United states.[2][3][4]
Contents
History
At 19, David Karp, the founder and CEO of Tumblr, caught on to the new trend of "tumblelogs"; short-form blog posts. Seeing that no social platform had been created to host such blogs, Karp began working on what would become Tumblr. [5][6]
After preliminary work in late 2006, Tumblr was officially launched in November of 2007. The site was maintained by two people: David Karp and one other programmer, Marco Arment.
Two weeks after Tumblr's launch, it had a user base of 75,000. In 2009, Tumblr, Inc. acquired Tumblerette, an application in the iTunes App Store, after which Tumblr launched its official app for the iPhone. In 2012, Tumblr began moving towards paid advertising and featured their first brand advertising campaign with Adidas.[1] Around this time, the site sported a growth of 15 billion monthly pageviews and 120 million monthly unique visitors, a 900% platform growth from the previous year.
As of October 6, 2012, Tumblr has over 76.3 million blogs and more than 33 billion blog posts.[2] The company now employs 103 people, though Marco Arment left in 2010 to focus on Instapaper. 40-45% percent of Tumblr's users are located in the U.S and 2% of its overall users are responsible for 43% of its visits.[7]
Features
Post Formats
As a microblogging site, Tumblr offers a variety of templates for different types of posts. The available templates assist in blogging text, photos, quotes, links, chat transcripts, audio, and videos. Tumblr also gives users the option to tag posts so that they can be easily searched for.[8]
Blog Options
Tumblr gives various options in setting up one's blog. One can allow for multiple authors as well as write multiple unique blogs on a single account. A blog can be password protected so as to keep it private or share with a select group of readers. There are also several ways to customize a blog through selecting between various provided themes. Furthermore, one can customize the HTML of a theme or make one from scratch. It is also possible to make one's created theme available to other users, either for free or to buy.[8]
Dashboard
The dashboard is the user’s homepage. It displays a feed of posts from the user's followed blogs. Users are also able to post their own content from the dashboard, in addition to customizing their blog, searching tagged content, and checking private messages.
Reblogging
Reblogging allows users to re-post content from other blogs on their own blog. Reblogged Tumblr posts, unlike [Twitter]'s retweet, allow the option of adding text in response to the poster.
Liking
Users can also like blog posts. Liked posts are archived, so that the user is able to easily find them.
Notes
Each blog post maintains a record of all the reblogs and likes it has received. Popular blogs, in addition to having a many followers, consistently post content that receives large amounts of notes.[8]
Community
Tumblr is unique in it's emphasis on user personality rather than identity. In this way, the site's community lends itself well to connecting to other users through finding shared interests and ideas. This aspect of Tumblr also allows its service to be a notable provider for viral growth. Many fandoms can be found on Tumblr for this reason; it is easy for fans of TV shows or books to find content they are interested in, as well as other users who share their interests.
Ethical Debates
Copyright Issues
Tumblr's reblog feature allows users to copy the posts of other users without necessarily giving them credit. This can cause problems when the information is shared through the site that is copyrighted. Tumblr has a written policy "to respond to notices of alleged copyright infringement" stating that users must certify that they have a right to post the content they display on their blogs. Even so, these infringements are often overlooked. [9]
SOPA Strike
On January 18, 2012, Tumblr, along with other online social media sites, participated in a protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) by blacking out their site content. Users were also allowed to black out their personal blogs in a statement against SOPA. [10]
Perfect 10
Perfect 10, a San Diego-based publisher of pornography, filed a suit on May 4, 2012 against Tumblr as a result of the site's failed action in taking down over 200 copyright infringing images. Many of the images, Perfect 10 claimed, had Perfect 10 copyrights "conspicuously placed on the images." For cases involving information sharing platforms, under "safe harbor" laws, it is the user who is usually accountable for copyright infringements, not the host site. However, given that Perfect 10 had issued six takedown requests to Tumblr, which were largely ignored, the blame fell on the blogging site.[9][11]. This issue has still yet to be resolved.
Censoring
In February of 2012, Tumblr enacted a new policy of banning content that "actively promotes or glorifies self-injury or self-harm". However not all posts are included in this policy; jokes are often overlooked. Tumblr also has chosen to display a public service announcement when some things are searched, such as: "purging", "anorexic", and "proana". These PSAs illustrate the topic's harmful effects in addition to listing resources available for help.[12][13]
See Also
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Wikipedia "Tumblr" [1]
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Tumblr "About" [2]
- ↑ Alexa Top 500 Global Sites [3]
- ↑ Alexa Top Sites in United States [4]
- ↑ The History of Tumblr's Creation [5]
- ↑ Davidville [6]
- ↑ The Big Picture "Tumblr Growth Statistics & Trends: Users & Usage" [7]
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 A Complete Guide To Tumblr [8]
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Copyright Claim Against Tumblr May Test Immunity of Photo Sharing Sites [9]
- ↑ SOPA Strike [10]
- ↑ Perfect 10 Sues Tumblr For Copyright Infringement Over Nude Photos [11]
- ↑ Tumblr Censors Self-Harm Blogs and Educates Users Who Search for “Thinspiration” [12]
- ↑ Is Tumblr’s New Policy Ethical? [13]
