ReadWriteStart

For many successful startups, there exists a point where their product is popular enough to grow beyond the minimum viable product, but is yet to be discovered by millions more that may be turned off if the service is too complicated. Internet startups need to find a balance between keeping the power users interested, while not overwhelming the newbies. According to Spark Capital's Bijan Sabet, Tumblr, a rapidly growing micro-blogging service, is one company doing a beautiful job of finding this balance by turning the "less is more" mantra into "less and more."

Known by many as The Big Apple, and by some in the tech scene as Silicon Alley, New York City has been an international hub for media, art and business for decades. More recently New York has ebbed and flowed with the success and failures of the Internet startup culture, and is now well on its way to cementing its reputation alongside Silicon Valley as a driving global force in the industry.

Twitter client developers will be pleased to note that popular light blogging platform Tumblr now supports a Tweetie and Twitterific compatible API. In a recent blog post, the company explains how the API will help Twitter clients support Tumblr. While the release allows for similar posting and reading capabilities to last week's WordPress API announcement, it's a coup for those looking to Twitter to become the open messaging standard.

When the former editor-in-chief of JPG Magazine launches a photography startup, budding photojournalists should take note. Laura Brunow Miner just launched Pictory, a site where netizens are offered a chance to contribute their best work to a weekly photo essay. The difference between being featured in Flickr's curated galleries or filling your Tumblr blog with panoramas is that Pictory tells a larger group story. There's only one catch - you only get one shot (literally) to make the cut.

Once the service for those serious enough to pay for the privilege to post, TypePad recently released a free "Micro" service. The company made the decision to offer a free product realizing the demand for a platform more formal than Twitter and less formal than Wordpress or Typepad's original product. ReadWriteWeb compared TypePad's Micro against 2 other leading light blogging tools. Below are our thoughts:

You may not believe this, but there are actually people on Twitter who don't have blogs, use bookmarking services, or contribute to review sites. Don't judge. Maybe they're busy, or bucking peer pressure, or their repressive government or pseudo-Amish lifestyle makes juggling multiple profiles inconvenient. Regardless of the reason, there are just some people who only use Twitter and email to communicate. And when these individuals are ready to share more than the standard 140 characters with the Twitterverse, they've got a few different tools to choose from.

Disclosure: I love Fred Wilson's blog. Union Square Ventures (USV) has invested in some amazing ventures that were far from obvious (i.e. they took risks), and they have invested in my friend Alex Iskold's venture. So, I am a fan. Hopefully, I was able to be a good journalist, restrain my enthusiasm, and ask Albert Wenger some good, probing questions. Read on and judge for yourself.