tumblr Archive

NY-based microblogging service Tumblr has announced a new feature today: Photosets. Photosets takes a bunch of photos and creates a Flash-based slider/photoshow of the photos.

You can either upload photos or link out to other photo locations (flickr, photobucket, smugmug, some porn site, etc.). Additionally you may link your photo of your dog willy to his twitter page.

Unfortunately it does not appear that there is any option to embed a photoset outside of the originating Tumblr site. This could be a great way to get Tumblr content further along the Internet highway as long as the photoshow links back to the Tumblr site.

If you are new to Tumblr, check out CEO David Karp explaining how Tumblr works.

Peter Kafka at MediaMemo is reporting that NY-based Tumblr has received a Series B round of funding in the amount of $4.5 million. The round was led by previous investors Union Square Ventures and Spark Capital. Kafka says this puts the company’s valuation at $15 million and that the investors are looking for at least a $50 million exit.

When Tumblr raised their first round of venture capital ($750k) last year, the company shared a figure of 75,000 users and that they reached traffic levels in 2 months that it took Digg 8 months to reach. Kafka also spoke with CEO David Karp who noted that they will be working towards launching a freemium model early next year. The freemium model means that you get some features for free and others you pay a small fee for.

This past June, CEO David Karp provided a business update about Tumblr which I caught on video (embedded below). At that point, David noted that Tumblr has 310,000 users (no word on active), 120,000 posts per day and they host 15,000 custom domains.

If you are new to Tumblr or want to learn about the company and their model, check out this video from June with Karp.

Amtrak is excited to announce the launch of a new train service - the 2107 Microblogging Express. Please view the video below to experience a trip on the new 2107 Microblogging Express. We make a variety of station stops and connect to all local service.

This service even includes new services Posterous and Identi.ca.

People referenced in the video: Sarah Perez, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Robert Scoble, Louis Gray, Steven Hodson, Corvida and Steve Rubel. Our special tickettaker is Tamar Weinberg.

In the video below, NY-based Tumblr founder David Karp provides an update on the micro-blog business. He explains that Tumblr is the easiest way to share anything online. He also describes how important the "reblog" concept is for Tumblr. Reblogging is where you share what someone else has posted on Tumblr to help it gain viral growth.

For some stats, David noted that Tumblr has 310,000 users (no word on active), 120,000 posts per day and they host 15,000 custom domains. The user number is up from 75,000 last October.

I spent this morning at an event hosted by The Media Kitchen. A variety of NY-based VC firms along with their portfolio companies presented general business updates. I captured a ton of video and will post my thoughts and the videos over the next few days. The Media Kitchen put together an absolutely hilarious opening video. I cut two snippets that I thought would be beneficial for anyone trying to grow their startup.

The first video has the puppet (Gary) interviewing Tumblr founder David Karp about what makes Tumblr so popular. Rather than give away the reason, just watch the very short video.

In this video, the puppet asks MobLogic host Lindsay Campbell and Wallstrip host Julie Alexandria how to keep viewers engaged. This could be the first time that Julie and Lindsay have appeared together!

Update Wednesday - David Karp tells Silicon Alley Insider that he has no idea what this Norbum is. David’s statement: "I’m not involved with Norbum, I don’t know what it is, and I would never make fun of homeless people."

Update - Thursday - Jakob Lodwick notes that this .org site is not his either.

When Jakob Lodwick left was fired from Vimeo earlier this month, I immediately predicted that Lodwick would be working with Tumblr founder David Karp. It seems this might be closer to reality with some investigative journalism just completed by regular CN visitor and author, James Thomas.

This past Saturday, Lodwick posted about some new domains that he registered. The list includes:

• D***S***.COM
• BA******RO****.COM
• n*****.com & .us
• n*****s.com & .us
• n*****ist.com & .org
• n*****ists.com& .org
• n*****ism.com & .org

The previous day Lodwick posted that he had dinner with Karp per his blog post and calls Karp a, "soon famous face."

This is where Thomas went to work. After some Columbo-type maneuvers, we know the full names of some of the domains that Lodwick registered:

• norbum.com
• norbum.us
• norbums.com
• norbumist.com
• norbumist.org
• norbumists.com
• norbumists.org
• norbumism.com
• norbumism.org

Anyone know what a Norbum is? Let’s complete the picture before the new year rings!

Photos by: David Karp & Zach Klein