Poll: Which Light Blogging Service Do You Use?
Earlier today we reported that Posterous, a popular minimalist blogging service, had added the ability for its users to import their Tumblr content. Tumblr is a competing 'light blogging' service - the market leader in fact. Other similar services include Soup.io, Noovo, Vox, Profilactic and even Wordpress.com and Blogger.com are used for this purpose (although they're more used for long-form blogging).
We're curious to know which of these services our readers use. Let us know in the poll below, or make a comment if yours is not listed.
What do we mean by 'light blogging'? It used to be called "micro-blogging," although that term is as much applied to Twitter as to Tumblr. Twitter is limited to 140 characters and is more of a communications tool than a publishing one. In comparison Tumblr (and Posterous et al) are publishing services. The key point is that you can publish 'found' things very quickly and at the click of a button. You can easily share content and media with these services.
In the example to the right, I posted a video of a band I like to my Soup.io blog by simply inputting its MySpace video embed code and adding a couple of lines of comment. Much less effort than writing a post on ReadWriteWeb ;-)
Compete data shows that Tumblr is the clear leader in this market, with Posterous about to overtake Vox as number 2. Note: we didn't include wordpress.com or blogger.com, because they are much larger than all of these and are used for different purposes too.
Here is our poll, please select the light blogging service you use most often. There are many smaller services around, so the list below is certainly not comprehensive. If yours is missing, add it to the RWW comments.
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Richard, we'd love for you to try Posterous. Rather than post an embed code to youtube or vimeo, all you would have to do is post the URL to the myspace video and we'd extract it. We hate embed codes because normal people can't even understand what they are.
We've got a bookmarklet too that works great for this as well.
The main reason why Posterous is *different* is that we focus on super easy rich media posting via email. Email is everywhere, and we feel nobody has given it the attention it deserves until now.
There are 2 billion email addresses -- only 200 million blogs. We think there's a huge potential for breaking blogging out to the other 1.8 billion.
Posterous
Posted by: George Dearing
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September 17, 2009 6:36 PM
Twitter is my Blog.
I Aggregate the Info and News that I need to my homepage.
Real-time ;)
Garry: While admittedly our post-by-email feature is a little less polished than yours, Soup.io of course supports posting videos by URL only too, and features an easy bookmarklet as well. Just for the record ;)
I'm usIng FriendFeed to aggregate my content from a variety of other services. I don't use just one light blogging service. Rather, I post some links to Twitter, share some articles via Google Reader, bookmark some links on Delicious, etc. FriendFeed (http://friendfeed.com/matthewlmcclure) aggregates it all.
In writing a few other "heavy" blogs I have no major desire to add another. So I recently started using Posterous for my name domain. Happy with it so far, but I'm not even tapping all of it's features.
I agree with Gary, it's just so much easier to post videos, just paste the URL and that's it and it's that easy to post anything on Posterous. And for what I see the survey agrees as well. I do like Tumblr but I don't like that you have to add code if you want to allow comments. I just think that's something that should be built in to any blogging service even if it's a light blogging service.
Garry,
Never heard of Posterous until now, but it sounds cool.
Mostly I use Twitter and post either using Tweetdeck or from my Sokule acct as well as from the web: http://www.sokule.com/postit/RickNelson
I use Blogger for my main blog and FriendFeed (plus some Twitter) for anything else.
Most of our customers use Tumblr, followed by Blogger & Posterous for their personal domain names. Personally, I prefer Posterous which powers my personal blog and Storytlr for my lifestream.
I'm using Amplify (http://www.amplify.com). You can check out my microblog at http://soenarko.amplify.com
I have used Blogger, am using WordPress, have used private domain site and now Posterous. Posterous is the drop dead easiest way to put some content up on the web.
I need to learn how to put a nice podcast up on Posterous with music the way I did with Garage Band and iWeb using .mac as a host. When that comes to light for me I will likely drop the rest. Why other platforms do not use email to do this is beyond me.
I am probably showing my lack of understanding but without knowing html or some other code specific skill, this is surely a great service. I'lll bet the time will come when the interface can be individualized and customized beyond what is now available.
I have been using Wordpress.com. I am new at blogging and trying to share blogs with twitter and facebook from other social media sites where I'm limited with space. Wordpress.com is the minimialist company that we heard of first.
wordpress self hosting.
i use blogger its really simple and easy to use
Hi, I put my vote on posterous. Has anyone tried using posterous with a blogspot blog? What were your results? I imagine you obviously have no way to direct "old" traffic to the new blog.
It seems most of the ReadWriteWeb readers(including me) are posterous users.
And as Garry said, its the simplicity of email that makes it click.
I think posterous has the most potential out all the services included in the poll because email is the simplest and most used form of communication on the net.
I voted for Tumblr. I've been testing Tumblr, Posterous, and Wordpress.com and so far the easiest one for me has been Tumblr. Posterous had been leading but little things started to bother me (personalization of design, etc) and Tumblr has taken over as my favorite. I will be testing out the new themes on Posterous so they might start growing on me again.
Why do you give Posterous the time of day? They haven't launched a single original feature, and their execution sucks. More than a year to add customization? Really?
Not sure about Soup.io, but Wordpress and Tumblr have come a long way:
* http://en.wordpress.com/features/
* http://www.tumblr.com/why-tumblr
Tumblr definitely seems to be leading the innovation right now.
I switched from Wordpress to SquareSpace a few months back and couldn't be happier.
I've been on Tumblr pretty much since day one, but it wasn't till recently I started taking it seriously.. I'm on Posterous, Blogger, Wordpress and Soup too, but wouldn't stop using Tumblr in favor of any of them!
I use http://amplify.com
I use ShareIn for quickly sharing while surfing and following links. Cleanest solution for me.
I do use Posterous, tho, for family pics and videos. And some minimal article sharing. I have my reservations about this platform, tho. See post linked below.
WordPress for business blogging.
I wrote a review post about many of these and how they pertain to my particular habits (pros and cons included): http://bit.ly/2AkvAs
One of the easiest light blogging services is:
http://write4.net
Michael
Well I go for blogger.Its amazing and cool one.
I like the group-feature of soup. eg. http://netcrap.soup.io/
But I also have my own http://htwo.soup.io/
Now I use soup.io, but soon will move to virb.com.
VIRB's great for sharing original content (that is, what you create yourself).
What your article is terrific.
Have knowledge of new and still stay back. Always read your Blog.
Thank you very much.
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Start sharing music with thousands of people on twtmuzik.com.