Tumblr

About

Tumblr is a microblogging social network site founded by David Karp and Marco Arment. The interface allows users to post still images, animated GIFs, videos, links, quotes and other text. Members of the site can follow other Tumblr pages that can be viewed on their dashboard, and can “reblog” or “heart” other user’s posts.

History

The site was founded in 2007 and was originally funded by Karp’s personal earnings as a software consultant for the parenting site UrbanBaby.^[1] According to an article by The New York Observer^[11] from January 15th, 2008, the name was inspired by the word “tumblelog”, a term for micro-blogging that Karp discovered when he was 19. In the Observer interview, Karp acknowledged that they were targeting a young demographic:

“Right now, we’re going after artists,” said Mr. Karp. “Before that we were thinking students and young people, but it’s much easier to target an adult who wants to express themselves online. Artists and producers have YouTube, and musicians are relegated to MySpace. They’re the worst platforms.” Tumblr, says Mr. Karp, is a natural fit.

Traffic

According to Business Insider^[10], Tumblr ranks as the 10th largest social network site with 6.8 million weekly visits. The site has a US Quantcast^[7] rank of 28, an Alexa^[8] traffic rank of 46 and a Compete^[9] rank of 67. According to Quantcast’s demographics, the user base is 51% male and 41% female with the majority in the 18-34 age bracket. According to a Mashable^[19] article from June 15th, 2011, Tumblr accumulated 20,873,182 blogs, surpassing Word Press by 85,000.

Features

• Tumblr dashboard serves both as a publishing platform and an aggregate reader.
• Posts can be reblogged and liked by followers directly from the dashboard menu.
• Tumblr blogs can be linked with custom domain names.
• The blogger can reply with a post on their blog for everyone to see.
• “Ask” feature allows readers to directly ask bloggers questions.
• “Submit” feature allows readers to submit content to other Tumblr blogs with the blogger’s approval.

Highlights

• On September 9th, 2011 the 10 Billionth Tumblr post was made. It was celebrated with a script raining confetti on a user’s dashboard.

• At the Digital Life Design conference on January 23rd, 2012, David Karp announced^[22] that Tumblr reaches 120 million users and 15 billion pageviews every month. Almost half of the visitors (45%) are from the United States. Additionally, Karp revealed^[23] that for every creator of original content on Tumblr, there are 9 “curators” whose main focus is reblogging.

Notable Trends

Single Topic Blogs / Fuck Yeah X : These tumeblogs focus on a specific topic, and often use the phrasal template “Fuck Yeah X” for a title. The trend was originated by writer Ned Hepburn with his “Fuck Yeah Sharks” blog started on October 25th, 2008. For an interview with Hepburn on the origins of the blog, click here.

*Ask X : Ask X blogs are made to appear as if they are maintained by fictional characters, and other users ask questions for the characters to answer. A number of these blogs use illustrated cartoons to respond to queries. Some notable examples include Ask Gamzee ^[12], Ask Kyubey^[13] and Ask Dr. Whooves.^[14]

Confession Blogs: These typically involve confessions related to a fandom of some kind, such as Harry Potter^[5] and Yu-Gi-Oh.^[15] Posts typically include images where the confession is placed on a black bar that covers the eyes of a character from the fandom. A precursor to this may have been “Fuck Yeah Comic Secrets”^[6], a similar style single topic blog.

GPOY : An acronym for “Gratuitous Picture of Yourself,” gpoy dates back to 2008 when the tag “GPOYW” was used as a reason for Tumblrs to post a picture of themselves on Wednesdays.^[20] By 2009, the “W” had been dropped^[21] as users were posting GPOYs any day of the week.

5T4S : In early 2011, the television network MTV began broadcasting commercials for Tumblr that brought in a wave of new members to the site. Older members protested the influx by inserting “5t4s”, meaning “fight force”, into their posts to indicate that they had been on Tumblr prior to the MTV commercials. (See also: Oldfags)

GIFs: Animated GIFs are commonly found in various Tumblr pages. Notable GIF related pages include James Van Der Memes^[16], GIF Party^[17] and Lul Internet.^[18] A style of animated GIF called “cinemagraphs” were popularized on the “From Me to You” Tumblr by Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck.

Controversies

The New Dashboard: In early June 2011, Tumblr released a new format for the user’s dashboard. This caused quite a large amount of confusion among users, and many were not content with the changes at first. The original dashboard featured a follower count, message inbox, drafts, post count, queue, tracked tags, and a few other features on the first and only page besides a personal post feed. The new format changed this so that the follower count, drafts, post count, messages, and queue were on a separate page alongside one’s personal posts, while the tracked tags remained next to the main dashboard feed. A message inbox was added to the top of the main page.

Spammers and Phishers: As with almost any major social network, many people have tried to find ways to give users viruses or gain access to their account. When accounts are compromised, users sometimes unwillingly send messages to other bloggers or generate posts with links that will phish out more account information. In an attempt to stop the phishers and spammers, the Tumblr Staff has tried many different methods to try and prevent malicious activity. These measures have generated an endless source of frustration for innocent users, however, because they consist of a character limit on messages, a limit for how many messages can be sent in a period of time, and a limit on how many times a user can click the “follow” button in a 24-hour period. For an example of a phishing scheme, see the submeme, “lolsummer69”.

Search Interest

Search queries for “Tumblr” remained relatively insignificant until the summer of 2010, when volume began to dramatically increase.

External References