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Tumblr Is On Fire. Now Over 6 Million Users, 1.5 Billion Pageviews A Month
- byoung2 16y agoDoes anyone know what kind of architecture Tumblr uses to serve up that traffic?
- sync 16y agoSquid static page caching helps them a lot, I'm sure. S3 for image serving. Backend is written in PHP, IIRC.
- arnorhs 16y agoIIRC? What's that?
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- aaronz3 16y agoif I recall correctly
- oziumjinx 16y agoIf i rewind correctly
- chopsueyar 16y agoIf I remember correctly.
- mishmash 16y agoUrban Dictionary is a pretty good site for looking things like this up. (possibly NSFW for some..) http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iirc http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=iirc
- mkramlich 16y agonothing personal but i downvote any question that could have been answered quickly by the asker themselves if they took a moment to Google.
- arnorhs 16y agoThat's what I usually do as well, however: DDG: http://duckduckgo.com/?q=iirc http://duckduckgo.com/?q=iirc Gives me an IRC server written in Java - which didn't expect to be of use for Tumblr; Interactive Illinois Report Card which doesn't make any sense. I also checked google.. typed in define:IIRC and then I actually got the result of "if i remember correctly", but by then my brain had become so sure that it was some sort of technology that I dismissed that result right away. Well, you can call me stupid or a bad researcher, but it was an honest question which was asked after I had honestly tried to find the answer to in another manner.
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- patrickaljord 16y agoYou should just use google, it finds better results than DDG most of the time for me at least: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&client=ubuntu&channel=cs&ie=UTF-8&q=IIRC&qscrl=1 http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=chrome&client=ubun...
- arnorhs 16y agoYes it does. And I find myself re-searching in Google about 30% of the time. But for semi-common search terms you get the result right there on the page, instead of having to click through to another page - and sometime something interesting even pops up. But I also want to give another search engine a shot and since it's hard to get people to switch engines, I figured I didn't want to be like the old guy from Frasier who always needs to have his ugly-ass chair just because his brain is so used to it.
- klous 16y agoI've noticed a trend where some high traffic blogs have trouble keeping the lights on and are switching over to tumblr for their bandwidth capabilities and collaboration capabilities.
- pierrefar 16y agoThese are awesome numbers. Posterous' dying platforms campaign looks ever more lame now.
- hop 16y agoI've switched from wordpress to posterous to tumblr. I like Tumblr's lack of branded drop down button that Posterous has even on self hosted, custom themes. Photographer Terry's Diary is a minimal Tumblr powered blog thats pretty interesting - http://www.terrysdiary.com http://www.terrysdiary.com (mildly NSFW)
- sachinag 16y agoWait - I see two buttons on all Tumblr sites: one that says "+ Follow" and one that says "Join Tumblr". Is this something that I'm in a bucket test on or does it go away if you're logged or something?
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- croby 16y agoThe Tumblr blog owner can choose to show that or not
- edash 16y agoIf you're a Tumblr user you'll see two buttons in the upper right-hand corner on every Tumblr blog - regardless of any change of settings. This isn't meant for advertising though (these are existing users after all). Those two buttons allow you to: a) Follow that Tumblr (like RSS) b) Go to your Tumblr Dashboard
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- natrius 16y agoI don't think they ever directly called Tumblr a dying platform. The dig seemed aimed more towards Ning, which was the first platform they supported, and could reasonably be called dying for people who want a free blogging platform, as could several of the other platforms. The HN comments about the campaign seem to do more to further a catfight than the original blog post did in the first place.
- there 16y agobut is becoming a new "home for trolls" if we're to believe gawker http://gawker.com/5589103/how-the-internet-beat-up-an-11+year+old-girl?skyline=true&s=i http://gawker.com/5589103/how-the-internet-beat-up-an-11+yea...
- spencerfry 16y agoAny blogging platform is susceptible to miscreants. That's not a fault of Tumblr.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- jacquesm 16y agoTo some extent that validates a medium. If you don't have trolls you ought to be really worried.
- iamdave 16y agoIf I were tumblr I'd have sent the dogs the minute I read this one line: "Here's how the Internet's rage—funneled by Tumblr and 4Chan.org" Equating the two in any light is such a lambaste of untruth it's mind boggling.
- spoiledtechie 16y agoIve always wondered, how do they bring in revenue? Do they at all? I currently use at least 4 tumblr blogs and Im not paying them so where is the money going to be made up after they run out of funding?
- zds 16y agoThe LA Times published a piece on Tumblr earlier in the year that includes pieces of their projected revenue strategy -http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/04/tumblr-ads.html http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2010/04/tumblr-ad.... At the moment, it looks like themes are the central piece in their monetization plan.
- kloncks 16y agoFrom their Terms of Services: Some of the Services require payment of fees. Subscriber shall pay all applicable fees, as described on the Site in connection with such Services selected by Subscriber. Tumblr reserves the right to change its pricing and to institute new charges at any time, upon ten (10) days prior notice to Subscriber, which will be posted on the Site and e-mailed to Subscriber along with a link to the modified fee schedule so that you can review it. Use of the Services by Subscriber following such notification constitutes Subscriber's acceptance of any new or increased charges. -------------- Or, it could just be that they're making money by raising it from VCs.
- jacquesm 16y ago> Or, it could just be that they're making money by raising it from VCs. I hope that was a joke.
- c1sc0 16y agoA joke came back from 1999 to haunt you. s/VC/angel/ and it could very well apply to some startups these days, probably not Tumblr, but still ...
- edash 16y agoTumblr actually built out a feature set that was to be called "Tumblr Plus" ala Vimeo. This included group blogs and many other features that have since been released in the past year. Ultimately, Tumblr's venture capitalists (including Fred Wilson) encouraged them to release those features as part of the free product and continue to focus on growth rather than monetization. "Wilson added that 'some businesses should be allowed to scale and that takes capital — going for revenues and profits too early in some businesses is a mistake.'" http://gigaom.com/2010/04/20/tumblr-gets-more-money-now-it-just-has-to-make-some/ http://gigaom.com/2010/04/20/tumblr-gets-more-money-now-it-j...
- atlbeer 16y ago1.5b page views = ? revenue? What is their revenue model?
- jrockway 16y agoSuing Posterous for calling them dead.
- epi0Bauqu 16y agoHow much is porn? Not criticizing, just wondering...
- maxklein 16y agoAll these other blogging services sometimes forget the basics: People write because they want to be appreciated. Tumblr has very good 'appreciation' and 'feel good' triggers in there. So it grows.
- Alex3917 16y agoFor what it's worth, I posted a little analysis of the platform about eight months ago that I think still holds pretty well today: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=961523 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=961523
- KevinMS 16y agoI'm still trying to figure out this "quick blogging" phenomenon (and microblogging also), having no desire or apparently no inclination to do either of them. I looked around the tumblr directory at some blogs and I didn't find anything that wasn't just glossy regurgitated content. Not one held my attention for even a second. Anyway this article helped me out understanding tumblr (and how it contrasts with posterous) http://arstechnica.com/business/reviews/2010/02/tumblr-vs-posterous-quick-blogging-showdown.ars http://arstechnica.com/business/reviews/2010/02/tumblr-vs-po... Someday soon I'll need to do a little blogging. Can anybody recommend something easy to use but not so gimmicky as tumblr or posterous? I'll probably want a nice way to format code, and probably a comment section. I'm a developer and not afraid to get my hands dirty but I'd rather have something self hosted because I'm not interested a potential cracking vulnerability I'd get hosting my own.
- pierrefar 16y agoWordpress can be as basic as you want (just text posts in reverse chronological order) and can be enhanced with plugins. Host it yourself: wordpress.org. Have it hosted for you: wordpress.com. For any hosted blog, I'd put it on a domain or subdomain you own so that if you do decide to move later, you control it 100%.
- defen 16y agoIf you're going with self-hosted Wordpress, I'd also recommend putting it on a separate machine and ideally on a separate network from your other machines, so that they aren't compromised when your blog gets hacked.
- jeebusroxors 16y agoAre you looking for "quick blogging"? If so - I can't help. I don't see the point either. For more standard software typo, drupal, blogspot and wordpress are not bad (probably try them in that order). I don't know that typo or drupal have dedicated hosting, but wordpress and blogspot do.
- spencerfry 16y agoI completely understand the appeal of "quick blogging" like Tumblr and DailyBooth (for photos) for mainstream folks. Both are serving the masses i.e. people who have a lot to say, but don't necessarily have the substance to back themselves up. They can quickly and easily post their thoughts to the world and get the instant feedback they need to feel heard in the form of hearts, pageviews, reblogs, photo comments, regular comments, etc. The feedback acts like a drug. All you need is a taste and you're hooked. If you don't get enough then you'll bother your friends to "please heart/comment/etc, my post". The act of asking and then receiving this drug is what keeps people interested. And that cycle never ends. Tumblr (as much as I respect the hell out of the business they're making) is somewhat detrimental to people. I've seen it suck up peoples' lives like World of Warcraft or another game. I guess the same could be said of Facebook, MySpace, and others, though. Sorry for the harsh reality check.
- ck2 16y agoMaybe that has something to do with them finally adding oauth support http://staff.tumblr.com/post/806396160/oauth http://staff.tumblr.com/post/806396160/oauth
- edash 16y agoYup, in the 6 days since the blog post you cite, they've grown by hundreds of millions of monthly page views...fueled entirely by their announced support of Oauth.
- ck2 16y agoLOL, sorry I said that badly. What I meant was the opposite - their massive growth encouraged them to finally add oauth support.
- pavs 16y agoWould be nice to know Wordpress numbers too.
- ashishbharthi 16y agoCompete comparison for Tumblr vs Posterous vs Wordpress http://siteanalytics.compete.com/tumblr.com+posterous.com+wordpress.com/ http://siteanalytics.compete.com/tumblr.com+posterous.com+wo...
- bhellman1 16y agoWell deserved. Tumblr's done a great job focusing on the experience.
- c1sc0 16y agoThat's all fine, but when will the Dashboard get decent loading times? I know you're supposed to be a cool kid & email your blog entries, but I don't like what that does with line breaks.
- madh 16y agoI'd like to see a nicer way to read followed blogs. The Dashboard bundles everything together, and each site loses its design and identity (which a big part of what makes Tumblr great). Maybe they'll do something like they've done with the Archive view (e.g., http://staff.tumblr.com/archive http://staff.tumblr.com/archive) or the Mega-Editor (e.g., http://www.tumblr.com/mega-editor http://www.tumblr.com/mega-editor if you have Tumblr log).
- jonpaul 16y agoI love Tumblr! 1) It's free. 2) I can edit the HTML. 3) It supports Disqus. 4) Default themes are awesome. 5) Custom domain support is free.
- niccolop 16y agoIt would be great to compare that number to the other big blogs: wordpress, blogger, sixapart, livejournal, posterous, etc.
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