Fascinating startup: add posterous.com to the mix of Twitter and Tumblr and new media and cool new websites. It's like an instant blog platform, free, and extremely easy to use. You just email into it, and with the first email, it sets you up with your site, automatically; then you can edit and tune it. I just heard about it in an instant message (see below) saying...
... posterous is going to find VC money in 5 seconds flat
For example, posterous lets you automatically post pictures into an instantly obvious and usable blog-like interface. and it has the quickest and easiest setup I've ever seen, and, amazingly, it works.
Microblogging. The new instant small media, something that feels to me like instant messaging with a posting platform, seems all the rage. I've been on Twitter for a few weeks now, unable to decide whether it's a gigantic waste of time or the next big thing. Twitter lets you post 140-character snippets. I'm finding some of my favorite people there, and they're doing interesting things. There's been a business plan contest and a poetry contest, I think, both limited to 140 characters. Think of the trade-offs.
Of course there's the problem of attention span, as the instant messages interupt my Twittering while I'm talking on my office phone and my cellphone rings, in between posting -- drafting this post -- and posting elsewhere at the same time.
Is it a good way to make money? I'm not really sure how or whether social media makes money, and I just finished posting (elsewhere) on an in-depth analysis of that in MIT Technology that is very much worth reading if you're curious about that.
And, in respect to instant media and instant posting and a million interruptions, here's the text of the instant message exchange about posterous.com this morning ... my tip of the hat to the good side of instant interruptions.
Paul: very interesting
Tim: OK I just tried it, with an email. Interesting idea ... I'll see what happens ...
Paul: yeah
Paul: its pretty impressive
Paul: great interesting and real start-ups
Paul: tumblr.com, posterous.com, twitter.com
Tim: hmm ... btw, you know I'm on Twitter?
Paul: yeah twitter is all the rage
Paul: its good to be them
Paul: posterous is going to find vc money in like 5 seconds flat
Tim: I don't get it ... why doesn't posterous want me to register timberry.posterous.com?
Paul: oh it lets you bypass that
Tim: How do they know when I email to them what site name I want to be?
Paul: but you can. you'll see as soon as they email you back. then it becomes clear.
Paul: The email you got back should make it easy to switch that up to a domain you actually want.
Paul: its not so much your next blog - but the next trend in the path to microblogging
Tim: OK getting it now ... timstuff.posterous.com
Paul: yeah, it's clever
Tim: It is cool. You're right.
Paul: check out what a nice slideshow it made for this post http://paul_8f3xz.posterous.com
Paul: just attaching 5 photos to email and boom
Tim: wow
Paul: yeah that's slick
So there you have it. Instant blogging, instant gratification, immediate interruptions, and maybe VC money as well. I like this 21st century. Or at least I do this instant, until the next interruption changes my mind.