Case and point: Tumblr.
Happy Valentine’s Day from Jon Snow
This video series has been getting a lot of attention in my Twitter feed, but I have no idea why. Is it supposed to be funny or something? I didn’t even realize this was a new thing, but this first video just came out today.
Sometimes I think the Internet just likes the inane.
On the other hand, there’s no misunderstanding this. It is sheer awesomeness.
(via luckyshirt)
Whelp, it looks like Google’s at it again. First, they ruined the nice uniformity of their search page (along with any other Google page, really) by darkening the top toolbar, and now it seems that they’re completely changing the look and feel of all of their web tools. When I launched Gmail this morning, I was greeted with a suspicious looking “Switch to the new look” link overlay in the lower right corner of the window, so of course the first thing I did was click on it. That’s when I got this message:
You will automatically get upgraded to the new look soon. If you don’t want to wait for the new look, you can switch to it today.
As I hopefully established in my previous post, I like to try new things, but generally only once I know they might stick around. However, when it comes to things I already use all the time, I’m prone to jumping into updates and changes immediately. Clearly my next move was to “switch to it today!”
I don’t think I’ve ever run away from something quicker.
As you can see in my first image, the new Gmail is loaded up with tons of useless white space, and oversized buttons. Before you say anything, yes, I know there is a “compact” setting, but all it does is reduce the white space a small amount. The buttons are still crazy-sized. Furthermore, the different sections of the page are ridiculously undefined, as you can see by comparing that to my second image, which is the classic look and feel. See how every section is nicely delineated? The real problem, is that it’s actually much, much worse if you use a look and feel theme, like I do. Just take a gander at my third and fourth images, and you’ll see what I mean.
U!
G!
L!
Y!
When I finally finished fuming about the Gmail changes, I decided to check out the other two services I use a lot, Reader and Docs. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that they’d already been changed (see my last two images)! SO much white space. Such horrible separation of areas. My guess is they changed a while ago and I never noticed, since I use Docs sparingly, and Reader mainly on my iPad.
So I don’t get it Google…why “fix” what ain’t broke?
At least I can keep my old Gmail look and feel “temporarily.”
This Whole Tumblr Thing
I’ve been using computers almost every day for 30 years now, so I’d like to think that I’m generally ahead of the curve when it comes to understanding new advancements regarding them. However, the seemingly exponential growth of the Interwebs over the past decade or so, changed all that.
Now, new websites and web services pop up all the time, and it’s absolutely impossible to stay on top of them all. Most are just flashes in the pan, but some manage to cling to the vast web of the Internet and become a part of many people’s daily lives. While I grew up always wanting to be the first involved with some new technology, with things like these I tend to watch out for ones that I think are going to be the clingers and then investigate to see if I can get any good use out of them (and to reserve my username of course!). It’s worked pretty well so far…
…until Tumblr: I don’t get it. When I first came across it a few years ago, I thought it was a picture blogging site, since that’s what everyone seemed to be using it for. Then I started seeing text entries, but they were always pretty short, so I thought it was essentially a Twitter-based blog. Then last week I discovered that you can post pretty much anything you want, however you want, which brought me back to square one and prompted my first question:
How is Tumblr different from a regular blog service?
