Tumblr to Feature Advertisements

"We're pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs."

This is a quote from Tumblr CEO, David Karp, made back in 2010 to The Los Angeles Times. Looks like he's had a change of a heart, or invested in some Pepto-Bismol, because starting May 2 Tumblr will start featuring advertisements in place of their "Radar" posts.

The "Radar" posts appear in Tumblr's dashboard and usually offer up a current selection of notable posts from bloggers. And while I find Karp's 2010 statement amusing and admirable, I get it - Tumblr's got to keep up with the times and they have to start making real money for their investors (they recently received $125 million in funding).

One thing Tumblr does plan to do differently is infuse their featured advertising with creativity. If you know Tumblr, you know it's image rich. Karp has chastised other tech giants like Facebook and Google for being "devoid of creativity" in designing ads that are too text heavy, and well, just plain boring. And who could argue?

As Tumblr's popularity continues to soar, brands and high profile individuals (hello, Beyonce) are already embracing the platform to reach fans. (Karp's personal favorite: Warby Parker's Warby Barker.) So, really, isn't this the logical next step?

With Tumblr's unique platform and emphasis on the creative the ads will probably be easier to stomach for both Karp and Tumblr's users. And, the advertisers will benefit from the potential 120 million impressions a day - score!

Source Ad Age.

Facebook/Instagram Saga

I'm sure everyone's been hearing a lot about Facebook's recent purchase of Instagram for a whopping $1 billion. While this has many a hipster shaking in their boots (maybe even more so than Instagram's new availability on Android), I think there are some real, concerning questions to be raised outside of the fact that pretty much everyone you went to high school with will now be sharing sepia-toned photos on Facebook (probably of their babies and/or pets).

1.) What's going to happen to Instagram's ease of usability in terms of sharing with other social networks?
One of my favorite things about Instagram is how easy it easy for me to snap a picture and then post it to Twitter, Facebook, or Tumblr. This makes live-blogging a cinch. And, to be honest, I'm more apt to share on Twitter or my Tumblr blog than I am on Facebook (again with those creepy old "friends" from high school). Let's hope Facebook doesn't kill these sharing capabilities (Facebook is all about sharing, remember) in order to squash competitors - or, worse yet, force us to into sharing on Facebook. If this starts happening, I may be one of the 200,000+ people turning to Instaport to save my photos upon abandoning the platform.

2.) The Facebook Threat - would Facebook really kill something it just paid $1 billion for? 
Further to #1, I surely hope not. While Instagram had been a major threat to Facebook with it's 30 million users and photo-sharing capabilities, Facebook has a lot to gain here - most notably enhanced visibility on mobile - because, let's face it, Facebook kind of sucks on mobile. Sure, enhanced capability with Timeline was an improvement, but when using my iPhone, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest have my attention before Facebook. Sorry, Zuck. Let's hope Facebook

Let's hope Facebook and Instagram can work together to grow together. Instagram now has Facebook's resources to leverage, which we can hope will only improve the site.

For further reading, check out Mashable's plea to Facebook.